In this dissertation, I examine the socioeconomic impacts of college degree attainment on white working-class Millennials. I conducted a qualitative study in Western New York, individually interviewing twenty men and twenty women. Additionally, I facilitated three focus groups (one male, one female, and one mixed gender) to further discuss these…

Low educational attainment of four-year college degrees in America is a concern attributed to specific factors such as the ratio of family size to family income, driven by a dilution of resources. Also having a negative effect on educational attainment are nontraditional family structures such as single, divorced, separated, same-sex, cohabiting,…

In the first chapter titled "Cognitive Ability, Education, and Fertility Risk", I explore the role of cognitive ability in fertility timing. Women in the bottom quartile of the cognitive ability distribution are nine times more likely to have their first child as a teenager. First, I document the differences in age at childbirth by…

Current persistence and completion rates have moved to the forefront in higher education nationwide. A new generation of Americans is on the rise: highly entrepreneurial, pluralistic, and determined to take charge of their own futures. There is a demand for colleges to provide more creative ways of serving and retaining students. Generation Z…

The heterogeneity of the timing and order of achieving the "big five" markers of the transition to adulthood is often treated as a taken-for-granted feature of emerging adulthood, reflecting a tendency of "leisure to explore" between adolescence and adulthood. With the central assumption of emphasizing how individuals take…

In this qualitative case study, I examined the perspectives of first-generation and second-generation African American alumni of an early college high school in order to better understand the role of this model of education in their high school diploma attainment, accumulation of college credits, and aspirations to continue their post-secondary…

This research investigated the attainment of bachelor degrees by students from different immigrant generational backgrounds and income levels in the United States through the additional family capital variables of student educational expectations, parental educational attainment, and two-parent households. As the nation continues to mature, gaps…

This study investigated the influence of professional training and personal factors on five categories of technostress: techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty. The goal of the study was to determine whether experience and knowledge gained during professional training influenced the level of…

With the rapid growth of Facebook, the social networking website is becoming a lucrative target for malicious activity. Users of Facebook therefore should be aware of various malicious attacks and know how to identify them. This research analyzed Facebook users' level of understanding in the domain of malicious social engineering on Facebook. The…

Educational attainment sits at the core of research on social stratification in the United States. An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree.…

Home computer ownership and Internet access have become essential to education, job security and economic opportunity. The digital divide, the gap between those who can afford and can use computer technologies remains greatest for ethnic/racial groups placing them at a disadvantage for economic and educational opportunities. The purpose of the…

The fact that Latina/o students are losing ground to their non-Latino White peers in four-year college enrollment and bachelor's degree attainment even as Latino college enrollment and graduation rates are at an all time high constitutes a perplexing puzzle. In order to realize the potential "demographic dividend" embedded in the…

Research concerning Latinos and their educational attainment has posited several reasons for Latino underrepresentation and underachievement. This study sought to counter such deficiency models and examine certain predictors of academic success among college Latinos. Specifically, this study predicted a negative correlation between generational…

As the economy has become increasingly global, organizations whose employees are more creative and innovative compete at a higher level than those who do not. And, organizations that incorporate multi-generations into their workforce will realize more creativity and innovation within their organizations. Now, and in the future, leaders will…

The purpose of this dissertation research was to analyze a nationally representative dataset of first-year beginning students to examine the factors that affect Mexican-origin Latinos undergraduate students' persistence and degree attainment outcomes. Several theoretical perspectives are used in this research in order to address the complex…