Carter, K., Grabsch, D. K., & Nadler, M. (2023). Exploring the relationship between residential affinity efforts and sense of belonging. Journal of College and University Student Housing. 50(1): 74-99.

College students seek to belong, and higher education institutions seek to cultivate belonging. Though many studies have examined sense of belonging in higher education institutions in general and living-learning
communities in particular, we have focused on how students are impacted by the efforts of campus housing staff to increase this sense of affinity in particular residential environments. We operationalized a positivist paradigm to conduct a descriptive, correlational study involving cross-sectional survey data in order to understand which residential affinity efforts correlate with feeling as though one belongs to a collegiate residential community. A number of residential affinity efforts—such as community council participation, personal interactions with the residential community director, and personal interactions with the
faculty-in-residence—proved to be statistically significant and positive in
their relationship to various aspects of the sense of belonging, while affinity efforts involving the residential community social media, webpages, and weekly newsletters were negatively related. Recommendations are made for residence life and student housing professionals’ practice and future research.

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