Belonging and Belonging Uncertainty Predicting Academic Motivation and Achievement Among Community College and University Students

• In Event: Connecting Research on Belonging and Motivation: Investigating the Interplay Between Contextual, Individual, and Institutional Factors

Abstract

Objectives and Theoretical Framework
Our study explored two questions: (1) Do students’ sense of college belonging and belonging uncertainty have independent roles in predicting the development of academic motivation and achievement during their first semester of college? (2) Do these relations vary between community colleges and research universities? Belonging refers to students’ feeling of “fitting in” and is an important psychological process related to academic motivation such as expectancy, value, and cost (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000) and achievement (Pittman & Richmond, 2007). Belonging uncertainty, however, highlights students’ concern about whether they fit in (Walton & Cohen, 2007). These related but distinct constructs are often not studied in tandem which hinders our understanding of how they may explain students' motivational or academic outcomes both independently and together (Edwards et al., 2021). Also, belonging and belonging uncertainty research in higher education has mostly been conducted at 4-year universities, limiting the opportunity to examine context-specific (e.g., institution type) roles of belonging and belonging uncertainty.

Methods and Results
Data were collected from first-year college students across 14 community colleges (N = 2,287) and 4 research universities (N = 1,431). At the beginning and end of the first semester in college, participants reported their sense of college belonging and belonging uncertainty. Expectancy, value, and cost were reported separately for math and English courses but aggregated into a single score for these analyses. Their first semester and high school GPAs were obtained from the institutional records. A multigroup analysis (Figure 1) was conducted and fit well (RMSEA = 0.04; CFI = 0.98; SRMR = 0.08). For community colleges, belonging uncertainty negatively predicted the development of expectancy (b = -.19, p = .001) and value (b = -.11, p = .01) while belonging positively predicted the development of expectancy (b = .11, p = .03) and cost (b = -.12, p = .01), controlling for high school GPA. Only belonging uncertainty (b = -.12, p < .001) predicted semester GPA, controlling for all baseline motivational factors and high school GPA. For research universities, neither belonging nor belonging uncertainty predicted the development of expectancy, value, and cost. However, both belonging uncertainty (b = -.07, p = .01) and belonging, although unexpectedly (b = -.08, p = .002), negatively predicted semester GPA, controlling for all baseline motivational factors and high school GPA.

Significance
This study is one of the first to directly compare the constructs of belonging and belonging uncertainty as distinct factors that play a role in college students’ motivation and achievement. The results suggest that the two constructs are independent and meaningful contributors to the development of expectancy, value, and cost, and academic achievement. Moreover, the ways in which they relate to motivation and achievement vary between community colleges and research universities. Future research should investigate what features of the context (e.g., social norms) and the individual (e.g., motive for attending college) account for this variability. This will allow for more effective interventions to support students’ motivation and achievement outcomes across a diverse set of educational contexts

Authors

• Garam A. Lee, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Christopher Leland Williams, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Francis, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Delaram A. Totonchi, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Chris S. Hulleman, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Yoi Tibbetts, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author