Examining belonging pathways across diverse institutions to - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Examining belonging pathways across diverse institutions to understand belonging at your school Eric Gaudiello, Laura Hix, and Nicole Brocato NASPA REGION II & III CONFERENCE | WASHINGTON, DC | JUNE 6, 2019

Wellbeing Collaborative Operationalizing constructs Increasing Developing capacity evidence tools Translating evidence into programming 2

Agenda • Why does school belonging matter for students? • Wellbeing Assessment findings • Relationship between belonging and: • School characteristics (Size, public/private, region) • Individual characteristics (Age, GPA, intersectionality) • Group discussion of implications for practice & future research (intermittent) 3

Why does school belonging matter? 4

Thinking from a student’s perspective, what does it mean to belong at your school? 5

Questions about perceived fit drive belonging Can someone like me belong here? 6

Concerns relevant to belonging • Connection • Are there people here whom I can connect to? • Value • Do people here value (people like) me? • Alignment • Is this a setting in which I want to belong? 7

Pathways to school belonging 8

9

Belonging pathways & outcomes Pathway items Outcome items • Faculty or staff help • Friends help • I feel a sense of belonging to • People are friendly to my school me • I feel accepted at my school • Positive academic • I feel included at my school experiences • Positive activity experiences 10

Ecological model Community • Campus climate, policies, social and cultural norms Relationship • Peer circles, faculty/staff to student relationships Individual • Personal histories, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, skills 11

Research Question How do belonging pathways explain the effects of institutional and student variables on belonging? 12

Methods 13

Sample makeup: School Undergrad Enrollment Total Schools Median 4223 28 Range 30948 Min 824 Max 31772 Status Region 14

Sample makeup: Student 15

Measures Belonging Student School Belonging pathways outcomes characteristics characteristics •There are faculty or staff who help • GPA • I feel a sense of • Size me feel like I belong at my school. belonging to my (Undergrad • Age •I would have to change myself in school enrollment) • # of historically order to feel like I fit in at my • I feel accepted • Public/ marginalized/ school. at my school Private underrepresented •People at my school are friendly identities held • I feel included • Region toward me. at my school •I belong to a group of friends at my • Non-cisgender school who are important to me. • Transgender •I regularly participate in at least • Non-heterosexual one activity that helps me feel like I • Non-White belong. •The academic experiences I have had at my school help me feel like I belong. •There are campus programs and events that help me feel like I belong at my school. 16

Analyses • Mplus • MLR (for FIML and robust errors) • RMSEA <= .05, CFI >= .95, SRMR <= .05 • Multi-step structural equation modeling (SEM) • Results are standardized (STDYX) 17

Results 18

Are there people here I can connect to? .14 GPA .1 .19 Faculty/staff helped Midwest -.14 Size .11 .26 Belonging GPA People are friendly -.19 .01 Public Group of friends at -.21 Age my school 19

Do people here value people like me? -.13 -.23 Have to change Belonging Public myself to fit in 20

Is this a setting in which I want to belong? .18 .23 Academic experiences GPA helped me belong Belonging .10 South .17 Campus program and events helped 1 1 . - Age 21

Academic experiences # marginalized -.06 .23 identities helped me belong # marginalized -.09 People are friendly .26 identities # marginalized -.02 .19 Faculty/staff helped identities Belonging Have to change -.23 # marginalized .06 myself to fit in identities .17 Campus program and # marginalized -.05 events helped identities .01 -.08 # marginalized Group of friends at my identities school 22

Future Directions • Do schools in different regions show different pathway relationships? • Do campus composition statistics play a role? • Do the pathways differ based on the time of the semester? • What questions do you think we should look at? 23

Thank you for attending! • WellbeingCollaborative.wfu.edu Connect! • Email: gaudec18@wfu.edu • Listserv • Annual Wellbeing Assessment Join! • Annual Summer Learning Collaborative 24