AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

This analysis of a subset of the data from the Survey of Midlife Development In The United States (MIDUS II) aims to determine whether those respondents who had dropped out of school differ in neuroticism compared to those who had never dropped out of school. A ‘dropout’ was defined as an individual who did not complete secondary school; ‘neuroticism’ refers to the Big Five personality trait and was measured using survey questions similar to those used in the NEO-PI-R (Costa and McCrae, 1992).

More than half of those New Zealanders who left school in 2008 did so without gaining a Year 13 qualification (Dench, 2010). Though this statistic reflects a positive trend (Data Management and Analysis Division, 2004), it nevertheless represents one of the highest school dropout rates in the developed world. In the United States, for example, three quarters of the class of 2003-2004 successfully graduated from high school (Laird, Kienzl, DeBell, Chapman, 2007).  Those students who drop out tend to have poorer life outcomes in multiple dimensions than their peers who graduate from high school, making research on school dropouts highly socially relevant.

Dropping out of school is a major barrier to obtaining a highly skilled and well-paid job in later life.   Oreopoulos (2007) suggests that Americans who complete the minimum number of years of compulsory schooling earn between 10% and 15% more than those who drop out of school one year before completion. Dropouts are also more likely to be unemployed than non-dropouts (Laird, et al., 2007). School dropouts, therefore, are at an economic disadvantage compared to graduates, which may have negative effects on health and life satisfaction.

School dropouts are also overrepresented in negative health statistics, even when earning power is controlled for.  For example, dropouts are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease than graduates (Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank, & Fortmann, 1992). Indeed, low education not only predicts poor health, but also early death (Freudenberg & Ruglis, 2007).

WichstrØm (1998) showed that Norwegian youth who have dropped out of school drink twice as much alcohol than their non-dropout peers. Concordantly, adult alcohol abuse disorders are more prevalent in people who have dropped out of school than in people who have completed school (Crum, Ensminger, Ro, & McCord, 1998). Alcohol abuse can have serious negative psychosocial and physical effects on the individual and on their family and friends, so this is both a medically and socially important risk of dropping out of school.

As well as poor school completion statistics, New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world (Beautrais, 2000). Given the obvious emotional impact that a youth suicide has on the deceased’s family and peer group, it is sobering that the results of the Christchurch Health and Development Study show that those sixteen year olds who had already dropped out of school were nine times more likely to have attempted suicide than those who remained in school (Fergusson & Lynskey, 1995).

Clearly, school dropouts are a high-risk subset of the population. Consequently, much research has been and continues to be conducted to improve understanding of the differences between school dropouts and those who stay in school. The results of this research can help schools and social services identify students at risk of dropping out, intervene to help recent dropouts back into education, and to reduce long-term inequalities between adults who stayed in school and those who dropped out. However, it is impractical to conduct large-scale screening for many of the predictors of premature school leaving. One such predictor can, however, be easily identified through the administration of short questionnaires along the lines of the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) - personality traits.

The first recorded trait theory of personality dates from about 460BC, when Hippocrates (460BC/1967) identified four humours in his work The Nature of Man. In modern times, trait theories of personality have enjoyed a renaissance following the psycho-lexical research of Allport and Odbert (1936). This work identified a vast number of traits by searching for human descriptors in Webster’s New International Dictionary, but failed to investigate the presence of these traits in human subjects. Cattell (1943) used factor analysis and descriptions of test subjects to reduce these traits to sixteen factors. Later, Eysenck (1970) further reduced the number of personality traits to three: psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism.

Eysenck’s three-factor theory has since fallen out of regard, as Costa and McCrae identify five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (McCrae & John, 1992). Some later research has inferred the presence of a sixth personality trait, but it is the ‘Big Five’ model of personality that was used in MIDUS II.

Neuroticism (or an equivalent) is identified as a personality trait in all of the above trait models of personality. For Costa and McCrae, neuroticism is ‘a broad dimension of individual differences in the tendency to experience negative, distressing emotions and to possess associated behavioural and cognitive traits’ (Costa & McCrae, 1987). Questionnaire measures of neuroticism, such as the NEO-PIR, assess an individual’s tension, nervousness, instability, discontentedness and emotionality; those individuals who score highly are described as neurotic (Costa & McCrae, 1992).

This trait has been correlated with a number of negative health outcomes, some of which are also correlated with dropping out of school. Examples include mental illnesses such as depression (Saklofske, Kelly, & Janzen, 1995) and high incidence of physical illness (Goodwin, Cox, & Clara, 2006).  Previous research (Fergusson, Swain-Campbell, & Horwood, 2002, for example) has found that young adults who dropped out of school are more neurotic than those who did not. The analysis of this data, drawn from MIDUS II, aims improve understanding of midlife personality differences between dropouts and non-dropouts.

An independent samples t-test was conducted on the data pertaining to school dropouts and neuroticism from MIDUS II. The results show that respondents who had dropped out of school (mean = 2.34, SD = 0.95) were significantly more neurotic than those who had never dropped out of school (mean = 2.10, SD=0.83) (t₁₉₇₆=4.662, p<0.001).

The finding that school dropouts are more neurotic than individuals who completed school is in keeping with the scientific literature on the relationship between educational attainment and personality traits. A recent New Zealand study of twenty-one year olds, for example, found that those individuals who had dropped out of school were more neurotic and had lower self-esteem than their peers who had completed their secondary education (Fergusson, Swain-Campbell, & Horwood, 2002). Also, truants have been found to have higher neuroticism scores than students who regularly attend classes (Corville-Smith, Ryan, Adams & Dalicandro, 1998), and truancy is a logical precursor to dropping out of school.

Given that neuroticism is stable across the lifespan, especially in Americans (McCrae et al., 1999), it is reasonable to suppose that the observed difference in neuroticism in midlife was also present earlier in the lifespan, before and soon after the individuals dropped out or graduated from school. As such, degree of neuroticism can be identified as a possible predictor of school completion, although it must be noted that this study was observational and as such cannot determine causation.  

Laidra, Pullmann and Allik (2007) demonstrated that neuroticism is negatively correlated with grade point average in Estonian children at all school levels. Poor academic achievement, in turn, is a known risk factor for dropping out of school (Cairns, Cairns & Neckerman, 1989). Therefore, it is possible (though causal links cannot be determined from these observational studies) that neurotic children are less likely to succeed academically, and consequently are more likely to drop out of school.

Fear of bullying has been correlated with neuroticism in early high school students (Francis & Jones, 1994), and students involved in bullying (both as bullies, victims, and bully-victims) have been shown to be more likely to drop out of school (Townsend, Flisher, Chikobvu, Lombard, & King, 2008). It would be unethical to perform experimental studies on these issues in order to determine causality, but it seems reasonable to hypothesise that if neurotic students are more likely to be afraid of bullying, then in a school environment where bullying is difficult to avoid neurotic students would be more likely to suffer severe negative effects and in some cases be pushed to drop out.             

Depression is a facet of Costa and McCrae’s trait of neuroticism (Cervone & Pervin, 2010).  This term is not synonymous with the clinical condition, but the two do share similarities. As such, research into differing rates of clinical depression in dropouts and non-dropouts can further support our findings. One such study of Indian teenagers found a tenfold increase in the incidence of severe and extreme depression in those participants who had dropped out of school compared with those who were still in school or who had completed their secondary education (Nair, Paul, & John).

The authors of this study identified a reduced access to mental health services and social contact after leaving school as possible causes of this difference, but it seems equally likely that suffering from depression while attending school could cause reduced motivation and social interaction, and hence an increased risk of dropping out. In contrast, those students who enjoy good mental health and have low depression scores may make more connections with their peer group and be academically motivated, protecting against dropping out of school. Whatever the causal link, this study supports our findings in that it identifies a significant difference between dropouts and non-dropouts with regard to a facet of neuroticism.

There was significant difference in neuroticism between dropouts and non-dropouts in the MIDUS II data. However, this study only measured neuroticism once, in midlife and well after the dropout had occurred. The above discussion has identified possible pathways by which neuroticism could predispose an individual to dropping out of school, which is appropriate given the stability of neuroticism, but it is nevertheless possible that the dropouts became neurotic later in life. For example, dropping out of school may lead to poor health outcomes and low income, which could cause an individual to become anxious, depressed and vulnerable and consequently score highly on a neuroticism index.  A longitudinal study in which neuroticism was measured throughout the lifespan could be used to investigate this possibility. Such a longitudinal study could also be used to determine the predictive power of neuroticism, and as such whether it would be appropriate to use neuroticism scores as identifiers for early intervention to prevent dropout.

It would be useful to conduct experimental research to determine whether or not individuals’ personalities could be shaped to be less neurotic. If this were the case, further research could be conducted to investigate the possibility and efficacy of lowering neuroticism in children to reduce the likelihood of their dropping out, and lowering neuroticism in people who have already dropped out with a view to improving their health outcomes.

The original research question also asked respondents to identify when they dropped out of school (Midlife in the United States A National Study of Health and Well-being, 2011), but this data was not available for analysis. If it were available, it would be interesting to see if earlier dropout was correlated with a greater, lesser or equal difference in neuroticism between dropouts and non-dropouts. If a dose-response relationship were determined (a greater difference between early dropouts and non-dropouts as compared to late dropouts and non-dropouts) this would strengthen the existing finding that dropouts are more neurotic than non-dropouts. Similarly, in future studies it would be interesting to investigate differences between dropouts, dropouts who later returned to education, and individuals who had never dropped out of school.

This study provides clear evidence that American dropouts score higher on the dimension of neuroticism in midlife than non-dropouts. Its findings add to the body of literature regarding school dropouts and personality traits, and could potentially be used in government education and healthcare initiatives aimed at keeping students in schools and improving life outcomes for dropouts.

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