Social Satisfaction and Sense of Belonging: Revisiting Student Persistence

Abstract

There is increasing concern in the higher education community about the high rates of student attrition, as the United States as one of the highest rates in the industrialized world (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2011). In 2013 Patrick O’Keefe found that “feeling rejected and not being able to develop a sense of belonging within higher education is a key cause of student attrition” (p.612). The present study further investigates the relationship between students’ sense of belonging and their social experience satisfaction while attending college. Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey data from a large, public Midwest university is used to explore self-reported sense of belonging and its relationship to students’ satisfaction with their overall social experience while at school. The study found social satisfaction to have a strong positive correlation to sense of belonging and was able to identify several factors that had an impact on social satisfaction, including living in residence halls and spending time socializing with friends. It is recommended that researchers continue to explore the role student social life and satisfaction play in sense of belonging. It will be important moving forward surveys are created to specifically address social satisfaction and sense of belonging among students. Keywords: persistence, sense of belonging, social satisfaction, SERU