A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND ...

COLLEGE STUDENTS¡¯ SENSE OF BELONGING:

DIMENSIONS AND CORRELATES

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES

OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Dabney Ingram

June 2012

? 2012 by Dabney Chatwin Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial 3.0 United States License.



This dissertation is online at:

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I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate

in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Deborah Jane Stipek, Primary Adviser

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate

in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Anthony Antonio

I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate

in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Kenji Hakuta

Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies.

Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education

This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in

electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in

University Archives.

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Abstract

Colleges and universities often have significantly different graduation rates

based on students¡¯ ethnicity. Systematic variation in students¡¯ sense of belonging at

college may be a factor. Existing literature suggests that a better understanding of

student belonging at the college level can help to improve college outcomes,

particularly for racial/ethnic minorities who are often underrepresented on college

campuses and may benefit from well-designed systems of support to bolster their

sense of belonging. This study was designed to improve our understanding of student

belonging, its components, and its correlates for a diverse group of college students.

Self-reported survey data were collected from 159 college sophomores (about

a quarter of the class) from one small private and predominantly white college with

graduation rates that varied by student ethnicity. Factor analysis produced three

reliable and independent measures of belonging: social belonging, academic

belonging, and perceived institutional support. Further investigation of this sample

indicated that the general measures of college students¡¯ ¡®sense of belonging¡¯ found in

the literature are mainly social in nature and therefore mask more nuanced

associations with important variables that are revealed with separate measurement of

academic belonging and perceived institutional support.

Results from a set of multivariate stepwise regression analyses suggested that

student demographics (ethnicity, parent education, and gender) jointly did not explain

a significant amount of variance in any measure of student belonging. Rather,

institutional and interpersonal variables (e.g., students¡¯ perception of the college¡¯s

commitment to diversity, students¡¯ perception of the personal relevance of the

curriculum) jointly explained a significant amount of variance in all three measures of

belonging, suggesting that the strongest predictors of student belonging were not fixed

student attributes but other variables that can be influenced to various extents by

college policies and practices.

Additional results indicated that social belonging and academic belonging were

significantly and differentially associated with students¡¯ self-reported GPA, level of

satisfaction with the institution, level of class participation, and frequency of meetings

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with professors outside of class time. The findings suggest that while social belonging

has important associations with measures of academic performance and outcomes,

academic belonging is also important and distinct.

Differentiating the measurement of ¡®sense of belonging¡¯ into three components

may be useful both for research and for guiding institutional policies and practices. It

allows us to identify more precisely what facet of belonging is being measured, and

how each is differentially associated with ¡®college experience¡¯ variables and

educational outputs of interest.

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