Sense of community on an urban, commuter campus

Abstract

As youth make the transition into adulthood, many are choosing to extend their education and delay the stereotypical institutions of adult life. At the same time, in the United States an increasing number of college students reside in off-campus housing.Research suggests that these students may be less likely to persist in their education and more likely to suffer from a lack of well-being (life satisfaction, positive affect, selfefficacy). One explanation for these challenges is the difficulty that commuter students may have to build relationships and access services on traditional college campuses. Collegiate sense of community (CSOC) has been proposed as a key metric for predicting student persistence and well-being. This mixed-methods study identifies how students on an urban, commuter campus develop CSOC, describes barriers to connecting on campus, and demonstrates significant relationships between CSOC, student affect, life satisfaction, and educational expectations. The results have broad implications for youth development and retention in post-secondary educational institutions.

How Far Have we Come? An Integrative Review of the Current Literature on Sense of Community and Well‐being

“…While not every paper included in the review employed a common measure of PSOC (e.g., the Sense of Community Index; Perkins et al, 1990; or the Brief Sense of Community Scale; Peterson et al, 2008), scales were reviewed to assess whether they included or overlapped with other constructs that are distinct from PSOC. For example, Kirk and Lewis (2015) measured what they called collegiate sense of community (Lounsbury & DeNeui, 1996). While several items tapped into McMillan and Chavis' (1986) four dimensions of PSOC (e.g., I really feel like I belong here), other items were not as clearly related (e.g., campus life is very stimulating, and I really enjoy going to school here).…”

Creating Healthy Universities: The role of campus‐based health promotion events in supporting student well‐being

“…This finding is supported by Fink, 10 whose study highlights the potential for student activities and campus involvement to develop students' sense of inclusion on campus, finding that supportive college environments led to student flourishing. Ketchen Lipson and colleagues 17 also have argued that students who spend less time on campus have fewer opportunities to develop social ties. Our study found that peer‐delivered events encourage students to spend more time on campus, develop social connections, thus building stronger campus communities and a greater sense of belonging for the individual, factors that all contribute to improved mental health outcomes.…”

“…Students who participated in our study repeatedly commented on their need for more opportunities such as these to socialise, connect with peers and support healthier campus communities. At a time when students increasingly perceive university campuses as a location where they receive a service rather than a place to connect, 17 efforts to create spaces to improve social integration of students should be prioritised if universities are serious about reducing the current grim statistics about students' mental health.…”

“…Universities worldwide have been trying to capitalise on these opportunities, with campus‐based health promotion events becoming a feature of institutional calendars internationally 16 . Previous studies suggest that campus events carry the potential to create social spaces that facilitate both social connection and connection to the campus environment 10,17 . However, there is insufficient evidence detailing the most effective strategies to create a healthy campus environment, or to improve students' sense of belonging and mental health, 15,17,18 despite the clear need to establish supportive university environments to improve student well‐being 15 .…”

“…Previous studies suggest that campus events carry the potential to create social spaces that facilitate both social connection and connection to the campus environment 10,17 . However, there is insufficient evidence detailing the most effective strategies to create a healthy campus environment, or to improve students' sense of belonging and mental health, 15,17,18 despite the clear need to establish supportive university environments to improve student well‐being 15 . This paper aims to address this gap in the literature by reporting on a student evaluation of a mental health promotion event that took place across six campuses of a Sydney‐based Australian university in the first semester of 2017.…”