Relations Among Self-Esteem, Perceived Stress, Positive Affect and College Belongingness: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Mediation Study

The phenomenon of school belongingness and the psychological constructs that predict this phenomenon have long attracted the attention of researchers. Although cross-sectional studies have investigated the links between these variables, their lack of simultaneous treatment in longitudinal studies has left a gap in the existing literature. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationships between self-esteem, positive affect, perceived stress, and college belongingness. To achieve this, we conducted a two-wave cross-lagged panel study to examine whether positive affect and perceived stress act as mediators in the association between self-esteem and college belongingness. The study participants consisted of 255 college students (Mean age = 20.23, SD = 2.49). The findings of this study indicated that positive affect and perceived stress play significant mediating roles in the longitudinal association between self-esteem and college belongingness. To put it simply, self-esteem indirectly predicts college belongingness through the intermediary factors of positive affect and perceived stress. This longitudinal study highlights the potential impact of self-esteem on students' levels of positive affect and perceived stress, underscoring the substantial mediator roles of positive affect and perceived stress as predictors of college belongingness.