When belief precedes being: How attitudes and motivation before matriculation lead to fit and academic performance

•Examination of consequences of embeddedness perceptions prior to matriculation•Demonstration of pre-entry embeddedness and attrition intentions for ethnic minorities•Pre-entry embeddedness differentiated from motivational constructs in prediction•Person-organization fit shown as mediator between embeddedness and attrition intentions

In academic settings, recent work has shown that feelings of connectedness among students are associated with attrition intentions and retention. However, research has not examined how perceptions of connectedness and motivation to succeed prior to matriculation relate to early attrition intentions. Via moderated regression analyses, we find embeddedness and motivational constructs play unique predictive roles, and that ethnicity moderates the relationship between embeddedness and attrition intentions. Additionally, mediation analyses indicate that embeddedness and aspects of motivation can have an indirect effect on attrition intentions through perceptions of complementary and supplementary fit. Finally, moderated mediation analyses reveal that the indirect effect of embeddedness on attrition intentions through Complementary Fit is stronger for ethnic minorities. These findings demonstrate the broad range of consequences embeddedness and other attitudinal constructs held by students prior to matriculation can have on subsequent behavior and attitudes.