Identifying Transfer Student Subgroups by Academic and Social Adjustment: A Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

A dearth of literature exists on first-year transfer student interventions, which makes it difficult to determine whether there are transfer student subgroups that struggle more than others. This study used a latent class analysis to examine whether meaningful subgroups of transfer students emerged based on their response patterns to measures of academic and social adjustment. Results identified four subgroups and showed participants in a first-year transfer student course more likely to be report positive adjustment and had the smallest drop in GPA. Furthermore, STEM majors were most likely to belong to the subgroup with lower adjustment. This study is one of the first to use a latent class analysis to identify transfer student subgroups and provide empirical support for first-year transfer student program interventions at a selective research-intensive public university.