Investigation of Belonging for Engineering and Science Undergraduates by Year in School

Belonging is an important factor in STEM education and is a basic human need which is dependent on social relationships for fulfillment. In this work, researchers at five institutions continued a multi-year study of belonging among engineering and science students. For this study, belonging is separated into four separate constructs: belonging to class, belonging to major, belonging to the university as an institution, and belonging to the university as a community. The focus of this work is on self-reported belonging for STEM undergraduates by classification (year in school), and the following hypothesis was tested: belonging will increase monotonically with student classification. From spring 2010 through spring 2011, a combined total of more than 900 students completed surveys at a large Research institution located in the Northwest, a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) in the Southeast, a women’s college in the Northeast, a small private faith-based institution in the Northwest, and a large teaching institution in the Midwest. The four types of belonging, or scales, were included in the survey assessing individual characteristics and academic experiences. Belonging scores across all institutions ranged from 14.08 to 18.12 out of 20.00 for four item scales and 9.49 to 12.68 out of 15.00 for the three item scale (belonging to the university as a community). The results of the analysis indicate that, although statistically significant differences in belonging were observed based on student classification at individual institutions, the differences did not support a monotonic increase by classification hypothesized at all schools for all types of belonging. The authors attempt to explain these observations based on cohort effects, institutional contexts and other factors.