Relationships between Risk Attitude, Academic Performance, and the Likelihood of Drop-outs

Abstract

Regression analysis is used to explore the relationship between students’ risk attitudes and academic performance indicators: current academic achievement and the likelihood of dropping out. Using empirical data on students of a highly selective Russian university, we reveal a considerable positive correlation between risk acceptance and the likelihood of being expelled. We believe that conventional student integration and drop-out models could also consider such individual student characteristic as risk attitude. Normally, it did not use to be regarded as a factor influencing the likelihood of student departure. Risk attitude as an individual student characteristic can be involved in the process of academic integration, affecting its progress. More risk-averse students remain underintegrated in the academic environment, which is fraught with dropping out.