Abstract
Sense of belonging is “the [psychological] feeling of connectedness, that one is important or matters to others” (Rosenberg & McCullough, 1981; as cited in Strayhorn, 2018, p. 11). In the context of college, a sense of belonging can manifest in various forms, such as an increased likelihood of persisting to degree completion (Hoffman et al., 2002) and an ability to easily adjust between social identities and campus environments (Strayhorn, 2010). Literature on college students’ sense of belonging has greatly expanded over the past two decades. For example, Museus et al. (2017, 2018) have tested the hypothesized relationship between the nine indicators of a culturally engaged campus environment (CECE) and sense of belonging among the general student body, White students, and students of color. Still, the connection between culturally engaging campus environments and the sense of belonging of Hispanic students in particular remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which culturally engaging campus environments influenced Hispanic students’ sense of belonging in college.
This study found that among the CECE environmental indicators, three were statistically significant predictors of Hispanic students’ sense of belonging, controlling for other variables—cultural familiarity, holistic support, and proactive philosophies. None of the other CECE environmental variables (culturally relevant knowledge, cultural community service, cross-cultural engagement, cultural validation, collective cultural orientation, and humanized educational experiences) were statistically significant in model estimations.