Predictors of Belongingness in First-Year College Students: Examining Mental Health and Adjustment

The initial transition to college is a pivotal moment for emerging adults, often influencing whether a student will remain successful. Students face a significant challenge adapting to the new environment that has been compounded by their experiences through the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these challenges, a sense of belonging for students has been shown to be a key aspect of a successful transition to college. Students are often confronted with increasing levels of mental health challenges throughout the transition, specifically experiencing increasing mental health difficulties or challenges throughout their initial adjustment to college. Moreover, parents have become increasingly involved in students’ lives, often performing duties on behalf of their student and unintentionally undermining the development of their child. While involvement from a parent can be helpful and parents are often more responsive than students, to what extent to which a parent can advocate accurately for their child’s needs for mental health and a sense of belonging remains unknown. This research focused on understanding the relationship between belonging and anxiety, depression, and stress to see if an increased sense of belonging predicted decreased mental health outcomes. Parents of students were also asked about their student’s belonging, anxiety, depression, and stress to better understand if their perception of their student was in alignment with the student’s self-report. Findings indicated a negative correlation between belonging and increased levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. Limitations, future directions, and applications for university administrators are discussed. Advisors: Eric S. Buhs and Carron Clark