The Mediation Function of Human Capital on College Enrollment: An Examination of Gender Differences (Published)
The purposes of this study are: a) To identify the direct effect of high school learning environment on student postsecondary enrollment; b) To identify how the human capital as the mediator indirectly affect the relationship between high school learning environment and student postsecondary enrollment; c) To examine the gender difference regarding the relationship between student level factors on student postsecondary enrollment. This study used the data from a High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS: 09), which were analyzed using Mplus 7 software (Muthen & Muthen, 2006).The results indicate that a) There is direct positive effect of high school learning environment on student postsecondary enrollment; b) Student human capital can positively mediate the relationship between school learning environment and student postsecondary enrollment; c) Indirect effect of school learning environment on student postsecondary enrollment via student human capital was not presented for both male and female students. However, there is a gender difference between male and female students for the school learning environment on student postsecondary enrollment.
Keywords: : Human Capital, College enrollment, Gender Difference, moderated mediation