Strengthening Community: The Role of Campus Recreation on Students' Sense of Mattering in Community Colleges

This qualitative case study examined how community college students’ involvement in campus recreation impacted their feelings of mattering. Using Schlossberg’s Marginality and Mattering (1989) theoretical framework, this study used a convenience sample to interview 8 student participants and 3 college administrators at a medium-sized community college in Virginia. Each interview was coded using the five elements of Schlossberg’s Marginality and Mattering (1989), which consists of importance, attention, appreciation, dependence, and ego-extension. Findings indicated that students who were involved in campus recreation felt a strong sense of mattering through connections with campus recreation staff, along with the campus recreation environment established at the studied institution. Given the scarcity of research surrounding community college students’ sense of mattering, paired with this study being limited to one institution, there is a need for additional research. Keywords: Community college, mattering, campus recreation, mattering, connections