2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Identifying Drivers of Academic Commitment: A Hierarchical Regression Approach for Engineering Programs

Presented at Persistence, Completion, and their Factors

This research full paper examines how socio-cognitive constructs relate to academic commitment in undergraduate engineering students, addressing the ongoing challenge of student retention and timely graduation. This study, focusing on Chile's largest engineering school, examines on-campus undergraduates across majors. It highlights academic commitment as key to persistence and progress. Using social-cognitive self-efficacy, expectancy–value theory, and belonging literature, we provide a reproducible workflow for institutional decision-making. A questionnaire measured self-efficacy, self-regulation, motivation, belonging, employment expectations, perceived value, and academic commitment (N ≈ 950). After distributional checks (skewness/kurtosis) for approximate normality, we conducted correlations and estimated hierarchical linear regression models, comparing them using ΔR², RMSE, and AIC/BIC. We performed diagnostics (tolerance/VIF, residuals, influence statistics) and reported robust BCa bootstrap confidence intervals, with sensitivity analyses excluding high-influence cases. This pipeline clarifies what to check, how to compare models, and how to document robustness when assumptions are only approximately met. The parsimonious model explained approximately 42–44% of the variance in academic commitment. Program-level belonging exhibited the most significant standardized effect (~.30), followed by employability expectations (~.21), self-efficacy (~.18), self-regulation (~.10), and motivation (~.09–.11). STEM-field belonging increased predictive capacity (ΔR² ≈ .02) yet showed a negative partial coefficient—consistent with a suppression pattern when distal identity is modeled alongside proximal program constructs. These findings suggest that students’ daily academic integration and perceived program fit are more influential for academic commitment than broad STEM identification, once motivation and efficacy are accounted for. They point to actionable levers for improving retention in complex engineering programs: strengthening program-level belonging through cohort structures, advising, and faculty–student connections, and enhancing employability signaling via industry projects and mentoring. The study also offers a clear, adaptable workflow for diagnostics, model comparison, multicollinearity checks, and bootstrap inference. Finally, it provides a foundation for future analyses, such as latent profile analysis to identify student subgroups and SEM to test pathways, advancing our understanding of how multiple factors shape academic engagement.

Authors

Prof. Maria Elena Truyol http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-4967 Universidad Andres Bello [biography]

María Elena Truyol, Ph.D., is full professor and researcher of the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB). She graduated as a physics teacher (for middle and high school), physics (M.Sc.), and a Ph.D. in Physics at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. In 2013, she obtained a three-year postdoctoral position at the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. She focuses on educational research, physics education, problem solving, instructional material design, teacher training, and gender studies. She teaches undergraduate courses in environmental management, energy, and the fundamentals of industrial processes at the School of Engineering, UNAB. She currently coordinates the Educational and Academic Innovation Unit at the School of Engineering (UNAB). She is engaged in continuing teacher training in active learning methodologies at the three campuses of the School of Engineering (Concepción, Viña del Mar, and Santiago, Chile). She authored several manuscripts in the science education area, joined several research projects, participated in international conferences with oral presentations and keynote lectures, and served as a referee for journals, funding institutions, and associations.
Dr. Juan Felipe Calderón http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-7248-4492 Universidad Andres Bello, Viña del Mar, Chile [biography]

Juan Felipe Calderón received the bachelor's in computer science and MSc and PhD degrees in engineering sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
He is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the Universidad Andres Bello. His research interests are learning design supported by technology, innovation in engineering education, sustainability in cloud computing, technological infrastructure.
Dr. Monica Quezada-Espinoza http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0383-0179 Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile [biography]

Monica Quezada-Espinoza is a professor and researcher at the School of Engineering at Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, where she collaborates with the Educational and Academic Innovation Unit (UNIDA) as an instructor in active learning methodologies and mentors engineering faculty in educational research. She is the Secretary of the Women in Engineering Division (WIED) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and an associate researcher in the STEM Latin America Network, specifically in the STEM + Gender group. Her research interests are diverse and focus on university education in STEM fields, faculty and professional development, research-based methodologies, and the use of evaluation tools and technology for education. She is also passionate about investigating conceptual learning in abstract physics topics, developing strategies to improve the retention of first-year engineering students, and enhancing skills and competencies in higher education. Additionally, Monica is dedicated to exploring gender issues in STEM education, with a particular emphasis on studying and proposing improvements for the inclusion of women in highly male-dominated fields. For more information on her work, visit her ORCID profile.
Prof. Angeles Dominguez http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6066-355X Universidad Andres Bello, Chile; Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico [biography]

Angeles Dominguez is an adjunct researcher at the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico. She also collaborates with the School of Engineering at the Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile. Angeles holds a bachelor’s degree in physics engineering from Tecnologico de Monterrey and a doctoral degree in Mathematics Education from Syracuse University, NY. Dr. Dominguez is a member of the Researchers’ National System in Mexico (SNI-2) and has been a visiting researcher at Syracuse University, UT-Austin, and Universidad Andres Bello. Her main research areas are interdisciplinary education, teaching methods, faculty development, and gender issues in STEM education. She actively participates in several national and international mathematics, engineering, and science education projects.
Prof. Genaro Zavala http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-5880-1124 Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile [biography]

Genaro Zavala is the leader of the Socially Oriented Interdisciplinary STEM Education Research Group of the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey. He collaborates with the Faculty of Engineering, Universidad Andres Bello in Chile. He is National Researcher Level 2 in Mexico. His research lines are interdisciplinary STEM education, social oriented education, conceptual understanding, active learning, assessment tools, and faculty development. Dr. Zavala was appointed to the editorial board of the PRPER (2015-18). In the AAPT, he was a vice-presidential candidate, member of the Committee on Research in Physics Education, member and chair of the International Education Committee, and elected member of Leadership Organizing Physics Education Research Council .

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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