Persistence of Adult Learners in Distance Education
Wendy C. Kemp

Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between persistence, life events, external (to the university experience) commitments, and resiliency in undergraduate distance education. Scores from the Resiliency Attitudes Scale (RAS), the Life Events Inventory (LEI), and one questionnaire relating to external commitments were used to form the independent variables. The study revealed that four RAS skills and five RAS subskills were significantly correlated with persistence. No significant correlation was found for life events or gender. Of the six external commitments included in the discriminant analysis, only work commitments were significantly correlated (p = 0.0247) with persistence. This study correctly classified 66% of the students as persisters/nonpersisters.