Dr. Angela Henneberger, Dr. Bess Rose, and Dr. Michael Woolley and colleagues at the University of Maryland College of Education, have a new paper published in Prevention Science entitled, " Estimating Student Attrition in School‐Based Prevention Studies: Guidance from State Longitudinal Data in Maryland."
Abstract
Attrition is a critical concern for evaluating the rigor of prevention (and program evaluation) studies in primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools, and the current study provides rates of attrition for subgroups of students who are often sampled for prevention science. This is the first study to provide practical guidance for expected rates of attrition using population-level statewide data. Findings indicated that researchers using K-12 school-based samples should plan for attrition rates as high as 27% during middle school and 54% during elementary school. However, researchers should consider the grade levels initially sampled, the length of follow-up, and the specific student characteristics and schools available for sampling. Postsecondary attrition ranged from 45% for bachelor’s degree seekers to 73% for associate degree seekers. This practical guidance can inform researchers to proactively plan for attrition in the study design phase, therefore limiting attrition bias and increasing the validity of prevention studies.
Henneberger, A. K., Rose, B. A., Feng, Y., Johnson, T., Register, B., Stapleton, L. M., ... & Woolley, M. E. (2023). Estimating Student Attrition in School-Based Prevention Studies: Guidance from State Longitudinal Data in Maryland. Prevention Science, 1-11. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11121-023-01533-1