Sense of Belonging and the Purpose of Life

Continuing my research into college student retention and engagement, I found two interesting articles that really piqued my interest.  The first article explored the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and purpose of life among undergraduate college students.  The article began with a definition of “self-efficacy” and a review of Tinto’s Model of Fit, Integration, and Commitment.  The author also reviewed Frankl’s Construct of Purpose in Life and Bandura’s Theory of Self-Efficacy.  These theoretical constructs helped to define the terms referenced in the study and created the thread that weaved self-efficacy, purpose in life, and college student retention together.

The stated purpose of the study was to examine how the theoretical constructs defined could help administrators successfully intervene with struggling first year students by using a series of assessments available to college counselors.  The researchers hypothesized that self-efficacy beliefs in college students are significantly associated with purpose in life.  The hope was that these two constructs when combined could assistant college personnel in the identification of students at risk for dropping out.  Students were given an opportunity to complete four different assessments created to measure self-efficacy and from these results were able to explore the connection with purpose in life.

The results of the study indicated that self-efficacy beliefs were positively related with reports of purpose in life.  General self-efficacy as opposed to other self-efficacy assessments (college and social self-efficacy) was the most significant predictor of purpose in life.  The researchers concluded creating more student interventions based on self-efficacy theory could play a significant role in establishing a more solid vision of purpose in life which could increase the likelihood among students to stay enrolled in college.

The results of this study did not surprise me at all, but it is nice to receive research based confirmation of the linkage between self-efficacy and student purpose in life.  Many students I work with come to college with very little confidence in their ability to succeed, but when they develop a sense of direction and purpose and then build the confidence to succeed through a variety of experiences and connection with resources, the goal of attaining a degree and then fulfilling the broader purpose define becomes more in reach.  One future direction for this research outlined in the article and one that I kept thinking about was how self-efficacy beliefs among underrepresented student populations could affect purpose and degree attainment.  This question is a natural bridge to my second article.

The second article described a study of sense of belonging among first year college students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups.  The study was based on previous research by Hurtado & Carter (1997) that concluded the institution of higher education and not just the student should have responsibility for integrating students from different racial backgrounds and assisting them with the transition to university life.  This research was a critique of Tinto’s theory of integration which primarily placed the onus on the individual student to become involved in “mainstream” activities as a means for social integration.  The Hurtado & Carter (1997) research concludes that sense of belonging among students from underrepresented backgrounds is a significant factor in their success and that building a positive sense of belonging among these students is a shared responsibility between student and institution.

The authors adapted the previous framework from Hurtado & Carter (1997) by adding a wider sample of students from different racial groups and added a component to study the residence hall experience as an indicator of sense of belonging.  The instrument used by was designed by the researchers using previous sense of belonging assessment as a guide.  The sample was drawn from participants of the Nationa Study of Living-Learning Programs (NSLLP), which provided an opportunity to better assess the residence hall experience as a factor in sense of belonging.

The results indicated that White students expressed the strongest sense of belonging among all racial groups.  Students’ perception of the residence hall environment as socially supportive was a significant predictor of sense of belonging for all racial groups except multiracial students.  These results were consistent with previous research, but one result of this study that was inconsistent was that faculty interaction had a negative effect on sense of belonging among all racial groups except Latino students.  The authors stated this result should be viewed with caution because of its incongruence with 30 years of previous research.  Another surprising result of this study was that co-curricular involvement was shown to significantly contribute to sense of belonging only for Asian Pacific American students and White students.  This finding indicates to me that underrepresented student populations may resist “mainstream” involvement opportunities that may be viewed as being created with White students in mind.  This finding should prompt significant reflection and discussion among people in my line of work.

Finally, this study found that three factors contribute most significantly to sense of belonging among underrepresented racial groups.   These findings include a positive perception of the social environment in the residence halls, a positive transition to college, and positive perceptions of the overall racial climate on campus.  These findings should prompt faculty and staff to do more to understand the perceptions of campus among students from underrepresented racial groups.  The study’s findings would also strongly suggest the institution play a significant role in not only understand student perceptions, but helping students to become engaged in both in-class and out-of-class experiences that are meaningful to them and contribute positively to their sense of belonging.

References

DeWitz, S.J., Woolsey, M.L., & Walsh, W.B. (2009).  College student retention:  An exploration of the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs and purpose in life among college students.  Journal of College Student Development, 50(1), 19-34.

Johnson, D.R., Soldner, M., Leonard, J.B., Alvarez, P., Inkelas, K.K., Rowan-Kenyon, H., & Longerbeam, S. (2007).  Examining sense of belonging among first-year undergraduates from different racial/ethnic groups.  Journal of College Student Development, 48(5), 525-542.