Contextual predictors of belongingness in military and veteran students on university campuses

<b>Objective:</b> Prior research demonstrated that military/veteran students report lower belongingness than civilian students, but the reasons why remain unclear. We investigated the impact of demographic characteristics, state and local politics, and school-specific veteran resources on reported belongingness. <b>Participants:</b> Participants included 104,162 students (2,814 military/veteran) who completed a survey for the Healthy Minds Study between 2014 and 2018. <b>Methods:</b> A combined mixed effect model and models stratified by military status to determine differences in belongingness between military/veteran students and civilian students. <b>Results:</b> Unadjusted models indicated military/veteran students reported lower belongingness than civilian students (<i>b</i> = -0.10, <i>p</i> < . 001). However, adjusting for demographic characteristics and state and school attributes reduced this effect (<i>b</i> = -0.04, <i>p</i> = .001). <b>Conclusion:</b> We were able to demonstrate that military/veteran students' reduced belongingness is largely due to the demographic differences among military/veteran students rather than aspects of the school or political leanings.