Role of sexual risk and coupling behaviors in community college degree completion

The Obama administration prioritizes increasing community college completion rates, which is currently only about 20%. The roles of sexual and coupling behaviors in community college degree completion are poorly understood because major longitudinal studies focus on 4 year college students. This study uses Add Health waves 3 and 4 to compare students at 2 and 4 year colleges (n=5042) and identify factors that predict community college non-completion within 7 years. Preliminary analysis used separate survey-weighted logistic regressions for each sexual risk measure, adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, Peabody vocabulary test score, mother's education level, and full-time enrollment. Subsequent analysis will use coarsened exact and propensity score matching. Compared with 4 year college students, community college students were more likely to test positive for chlamydia (odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (1.5, 4.1)), to have been paid for sex (OR 2.8 (1.1, 6.9)), have a partner with a sexually transmitted infection (OR 1.6 (1.0, 2.4)), want to marry now (OR 1.3 (1.0, 1.7)), have ever cohabited (OR 2.2 (1.7, 2.9)), and to express willingness to drop-out (1.9 (1.1, 3.3)) or go to school part-time (1.4 (1.1, 1.9)) for marriage. Seven years later, 53% of community college students had earned a postsecondary degree. In separate multivariate regressions, cohabitation (OR 0.6 (0.5, 0.9)) and willingness to go to school part-time for marriage (OR 0.6 (0.4, 0.9)) predicted non-completion. Community college students are more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections. Willingness to sacrifice studies for romantic relationships may derail degree completion.