Student mobility and school dropout

Abstract

Although several studies have linked adolescent residential and school mobility to an increased risk of dropping out of school, the reasons for this association have not been examined thoroughly. Using data from approximately 8500 respondents to the first two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ( Add Health), we explore the ability of several domains of adolescent life—parent–child relationships, peer networks, academic performance, school attachment, and psychological well-being—to account for the higher rate of school dropout among mobile than non-mobile adolescents. Characteristics of adolescents’ peer networks, particularly students’ centrality in those networks and the academic performance of their friends, emerge as the most important mediators of the mobility-dropout association. We also find an increased risk of dropping out among both mobile and non-mobile students attending schools with high rates of student mobility, which appears partially attributable to lower levels of school attachment and weaker academic performance in high-mobility schools.