The Influence of First Year Housing, Extracurricular Activities, and College Belongingness on College Graduation

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Although many studies have identified a direct link between academic success and graduation (e.g., Jesse & Ellersieck, 2014), non-academic factors may also affect emerging adults’ success in college. The first-year experience, including housing, extracurricular involvement, and a sense of belongingness to the community may impact how likely students are to be successful. Evidence for the link between housing and retention has been mixed, with some finding housing to be a significant predictors and others not (Hobbins et al., 2018; Millea, 2018; Schudde, 2011). In contrast, extracurricular activities have consistently been associated with academic success and college retention (Bergen-Cico & Viscomi, 2012; Forrester et al., 2018). Likewise, college belongingness has been associated with predictors of college success such as GPA (Phillips et al., 2020) and intention to persist (Hausmann et al., 2007), although there is limited work on predictors of graduation. In addition, few studies have looked at the combination of multiple campus-life factors and how they may interact to predict graduation. Thus, the current study investigated the role of first year housing, extracurricular participation, and college belongingness in predicting five-year college graduation. It was hypothesized that these social factors would play a significant role in five year graduation rates.
The present study included 141 college students at a public liberal arts college. Residential status (residential versus commuter) was assessed in the fall and extracurricular participation and college belongingness were measured in the spring of the first year. Graduation status (graduated versus not graduated (e.g., transfers, withdrawals, suspensions)) was reported by the registrar’s office five years later.
Binary logistic regression was used to identify whether first year housing, extracurricular activities, and college belongingness predicted graduation. Interactions between all variables were initially included but were dropped due to non-significance. The overall model was significant, χ2 = 15.68, p = .001, Nagelkerke R2 = .26 (Table 1). However, neither housing nor extracurricular activities significantly predicted the likelihood of graduation. Only higher first year college belongingness predicted a greater likelihood of graduation (Figure 1).
This evidence suggests that social factors, particularly a sense of belonging to college, can predict five-year graduation rates. Students who have higher college belongingness, may have college success more closely tied to their identity, thus they may be motivated to succeed academically and seek help if they need it. Alternatively, college belonging has been tied to more social connections (Bowman et al., 2019; Holloway-Friesen, 2018), thus students with greater belongingness may have social supports within the college community to assist them when they are struggling academically or otherwise. This evidence suggests that more than where students live or what activities they participate in, developing an early sense of belonging to the college community can help students succeed. College belongingness could be promoted by holding events that create a feeling of “home” and an awareness of existing supports available. Thus, although success in the classroom will always be an important factor in college graduation, college life outside of the classroom can be just as important.

Authors

• Katherine G Pridemore, University of Virginia's College at Wise
  Presenting Author

• Madelynn D Shell, The University of Virginia’s College at Wise
  Non-Presenting Author