Neugebauer Martin, Becker Michael, Bihler Lilly-Marlen, Wagner Jenny
Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany.
Technical University Dortmund, Germany.
Soc Sci Res. 2025 Mar;127:103138. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103138. Epub 2025 Jan 9.
Little is known about the socio-emotional consequences of dropping out of college. Here, we investigate the effects of college non-completion on a range of markers for general psychological well-being (self-esteem, life satisfaction, and fear of failure) as well as health-related well-being (self-rated general health and clinical depressive symptoms). Based on rich panel data from Germany in combination with entropy balancing, we find that by around age 31, non-completers fared worse compared to college graduates as well as non-college goers, i.e. students who were eligible to enter college but decided against it. About 18 years after leaving college, when non-completers were aged 40, their psychological and health-related well-being was still lower than that of graduates, while non-completers and non-goers did not differ significantly regarding their well-being. We conclude that adapting to educational discontinuation is difficult and discuss potential policy measures to protect individuals from long-term adverse consequences.
关于大学辍学的社会情感后果，我们知之甚少。在此，我们研究了大学未毕业对一系列一般心理健康指标（自尊、生活满意度和对失败的恐惧）以及与健康相关的幸福感指标（自评总体健康状况和临床抑郁症状）的影响。基于德国丰富的面板数据并结合熵平衡法，我们发现，到31岁左右，未完成学业者的情况比大学毕业生以及未上大学者（即有资格进入大学但决定不上的学生）更糟。在离开大学约18年后，当未完成学业者40岁时，他们的心理和与健康相关的幸福感仍低于毕业生，而未完成学业者和未上大学者在幸福感方面没有显著差异。我们得出结论，适应教育中断是困难的，并讨论了保护个人免受长期不良后果影响的潜在政策措施。
