Exploring the Role of Social Belonging in College by Racial Minority Group. An Examination of Academic and Psychosocial Outcomes

The present study explored how anticipated social belonging (SB) uncertainty in incoming first-year college students interplayed with precollege context (subjective social status and generational status), academic preparedness (high school GPA and ACT/SAT scores), academic outcomes (end-of-year GPA and second-year retention), psychosocial outcomes (end-of-year perceived stress, life satisfaction, and sadness), and experienced SB uncertainty measured at the end of student’s first year of college. The sample in this study included 3,847 incoming first-year college students of varying racial groups at a public institution in the pacific northwest region of the United States. The goal of this study was to examine how the development and role of anticipated SB uncertainty among college students differs as a function of racial group membership. Specifically, we examined racial group differences in how precollege factors and academic preparedness were associated with students’ anticipated SB and how anticipated SB predicted students’ end-of-year experienced SB, psychosocial outcomes, and academic outcomes. A series of ANCOVAs and regressions were employed to examine these relationships. The results of the analyses examining the association between precollege variables and students’ anticipated SB showed that students’ levels of anticipated SB were related to their subjective social status. Significant differences in baseline levels of anticipated SB were also found between students who identified as Asian and students who identified as White. Anticipated SB was further shown to be predictive of end-of-year perceived stress for all students. However, the findings largely failed to find significant differences in outcomes of interest as a function of racial group membership. Potential explanations for these findings and why they differ from existing literature are discussed. Findings suggest that future research would benefit from measuring SB and outcome variables of interest prior to matriculation, shortly after matriculation, and at different points throughout the academic year by racial group to understand how the changes and maintenance of this construct influence students’ academic and psychosocial outcomes