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The dropout of university studies is a main concern in many countries, also for Health Sciences degrees. The reviews on dropout in all university degrees as well as nursing generally show multidimensional causes with factors related both to institutional and students' characteristics. Regarding the personal variables of students, researchers have focused on financial, family and personality features. Far less attention has been devoted to emotional variables. This study aims to explore whether individual variables of the emotional domain such as perceived emotional intelligence, dispositional optimism/pessimism and depressive rumination are related and/or can predict students' intention to dropout and academic performance. Using a cross-correlational approach, data were obtained from a sample of 144 nursing students. Students with a pessimistic disposition revealed a greater tendency to drop out. The remaining variables correlated significantly with pessimism but had no predictive value on dropout. Our results suggest that students with low levels of emotional clarity and repair and high depressive rumination have pessimistic expectations, so they are more likely to leave studies. No significant results were found in relation to academic performance. We conclude with an identification of strategies to increase retention and academic success.

This article explores the role of resident's perceptions of impacts as indicators of tourism destination decline using data collected from five coastal communities in Belize, each experiencing a different level of tourism development. First, a theoretical relationship between Butler's [Butler, R. (1980). The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: implications for management of resources. Canadian Geographer, 24, 5-12.] Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) is proposed, drawing on additional well-established theories from the tourism and social science literature. Next, the proposed relationship is tested using resident perception data collected in the Belizean communities. The data are used to predict the position of the study communities in the TALC which, based on the proposed model, range from the late exploration to late development stage. The results show that the data collected in Belize reflect the proposed relationship, suggesting that local perceptions of tourism impacts may be used as indicators of destination decline.