SC 5: Generating dropout variables

Dear all,

I have recently started working with SC5 and I am wondering how I can build a dropout variable. I have checked some of the Forum threads, but I believe there is no perfect answer for this (forgive me if there is; I have done my best trying to understand German).

I understand we can define dropout differently (either as abandoning and go into the labour market, or changing of major or institution). I would be more interested in the former, but I am still curious to understand how to build both variables.

Since I am only interested in individuals who drop out from a Bachelor’s degree, I will only keep those who declared in the first wave that they intended to get a Bachelor degree (either in teaching or not). To do so, I use the variable „tg02001_ha“.

Afterwards, I used the variable „tx24101“ from the „StudyStates.dta“ file to identify individuals who have dropped out of their degree (tx24101==3). This variable seems to capture the same information as the CAWI variable „tg51000“ for the waves 2 and 4 and the CAWI variable „tg51004“ for the waves 6.8, 11,14. Would that be the correct way to capture those who never return to university?

I have seen this thread: https://forum.lifbi.de/t/sc5-studienabbruch/3956/2 where Dietmar provides a great solution to this issue. Is there any additional (more straightforward) way to obtain this? I might be missing a new variable in any of these datasets.

Alternatively, if I want to use a more general definition of dropout, considering individuals who have changed of major or institution, I plan to use the following variables from SpVocTrain: tg24159 (filtering afterwards by tg24162) and tg24121. I guess that for the latter I should control for whether they have finished their previous studies (and not changing of institution due to the start of a master’s program, for example). This could be done using tx15318, right?

Thank you very much in advance.

Best,
Marco

Hi Marco!

I will try something new but it will take a while.

Best,
Dietmar

Hi Dietmar!

Great, thank you very much! I can add some of my code on monday/tuesday if needed (:

Best,
Marco