Eyes on the prize: Patterns of risk and resiliency in high school dropout

Although there has been extensive research on the independent predictor variables of high school drop out, less research has been dedicated to explaining the relationships among these variables. This exploratory study examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic self-efficacy, specifically to see if delay discounting could be acting as a moderator between the two variables. Participants were 20 high school students from a medium-sized city in Western Canada, all enrolled in a dropout prevention program. Data was collected via surveys on three separate occasions throughout the program. The results indicated a non-significant positive correlation between SES measures and academic self-efficacy. Delay discounting, defined as lack of willingness to wait for larger, but delayed rewards, had a non-significant negative correlation with both academic self-efficacy and two of three SES measures. Delay discounting was a significant moderator of the relationship between SES and academic self-efficacy. Lastly, the early school-leaving sample was found to have significantly higher levels of delay discounting than a college-based comparison sample. These findings suggest that the individual difference variable of delay discounting may help explain inconsistent relationships between socioeconomic background and likelihood of academic success.