Structural belonging refers to institutional conditions, policies, practices, and cultural norms that demonstrate that one is accepted, supported, respected, valued by, and important to a community. Fostering structural belonging, thus, requires dismantling and transforming inequitable institutional structures that devalue, dehumanize, disrespect and “other” minoritized students, especially those who are multiply marginalized.

Thus, equity-minded campus leaders should make assertive efforts to center the voices and experiential knowledge of REM students in their assessment and transformation of institutional structures, policies, practices, and processes.

“We must understand that we have got to act upon certain principles by which we can bind ourselves together as a people, to bind our feelings together that we may become one, and this never can be accomplished unless certain things are done, and things that require an exertion on our part. “How would you go to work to bind yourselves together? How would a man go to work to unite himself with his neighbor? If two men were associated together who had never been acquainted, how would they go to work to secure each other’s friendship, attachment and affection one towards another? Why something would have to be done, and that not by one party only, but would have to be done by one as well as by the other. It would not answer for one to do the business alone; it would not do for one to answer those feelings and do the work himself, but in order to become as one in their sentiments and affection—the action of both would be requisite” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow [2012] 198–99).

some research suggeststhat issues of inclusion and belonging can predominate to a point that“until members resolve where they stand in a particular social setting[emphasis added] they face difficulty in attending to the official tasksat hand”

enable all students to feel that they and their unique background have aplace in the life of the classroom

University students with a higher sense of belonging are more engaged in the classroom and generally have more successful academic outcomes (Hausmann, Ye, Schofield, & Woods, 2009; Wang & Eccles, 2012)

One reason that there has been limited empirical research on belongingness in higher education is the lack of sound measurement of the construct.

Relationships and Belonging in Higher Education

Students are less likely to be engaged in learning environments in which they feel they do not belong (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Strayhorn, 2019)

What is a sense of belonging?

Reflect on Your Sense of Belonging Practices

When students feel a sense of belonging in the classroom, it can increase their educational success and motivational outcomes in multiple ways, and teachers can help create this feeling of belonging by building connections between classroom and community, according to DeLeon Gray, Ph.D.

ults suggest that with regard to academic motivation withinschool contexts, students' sense of belonging and support in school can in someways override the influence of a student's personal friendship group. Schools thatcan function either as a whole or as a set of smaller teams to create a sense ofcommunity where adolescent students feel personally known, important, and encouraged to be active participa

Goodenowand Grady, 1993) also point to a strong relationship between academic achievement or schoolleaving and students’ sense of belonging to the school community.

The research in this regard is quite clear, namely that the frequency andperceived worth of interaction with faculty, staff, and other students is one of the strongestpredictors not only of student persistence but also of student learning” (Tinto 1994).

It is human nature that when we feel welcomed, respected, and develop a sense of belonging,we are more apt to return to the setting or endeavor than when those factors are not present.When adults decide to resume their education after years of being out of school, they usuallybring with them the expectations and connotations of whatever their previous educationalexperiences were like. For some adult learners the decision to go back to school can be anxietyprovoking. They are stepping into unfamiliar territory, possibly without an expectationof belonging there. For that reason, cultivating a sense of belonging from the momenta prospective adult learner comes through the doors or calls is an important persistencestrategy.

It was seen(Table 2) that students’‘Sense of belonging’to the university has the most important direct effect onstudents’intention to stay or drop out of university.

‘Sense of belonging’has a positive direct effect on‘Intention to drop out’, meaning thatthe higher students’sense of belonging to the institution, the likelier they will be not toshow an intention to drop out. (The results of the crosstab analyses are:‘Ifeelathomeatthis university’(29.0% versus 45.7%);‘IwishIhadgonetoadifferent university’(40.8%versus 18.6%);‘I feel I belong at this university’(76.7% versus 93.4%);‘How likely is it thatyou would choose this university again as an institution to study at?’(64.6% versus 82.9%);‘Howsupportivehastheacademicenvironmentbeensofar?’(80.4% good/very goodversus 95.2% good/very good); and‘Ifeelsafeatmycampus’(82.2% versus 92.3%). Thecrosstab results indicated that students intending to drop out experienced a lower senseof belonging

Specifically, recent research outcomes also point to the crucial role of identity andidentity-related constructs in students’academic persistence (e.g. students’sense of belonging tothe institution (Hoffman et al.2003)). These constructs have also been identified as key to studentretention (Krause2011; Osborne and Jones2011; Osterman2000; Thomas2012). Cumulatively, theresearchfindings have shown that student dropout depends on several factors, of which arelatively small number can be influenced and addressed by institutions

Belonging and university retention

Goodenow and Grady’s (1993) definition of belonging as a student’s sense of being valued, included and accepted is frequently cited in recent higher education belonging literature

A sense of belonging at university: student retention, motivation and enjoyment

I felt like I’d unlocked a new level of Islanderhood by simple proximity

In an academic article published in the Journal of Consumer Research, leading experts define inclusion as follows: “Inclusion refers to creating a culture that fosters belonging and incorporation of diverse groups and is usually operationalized as opposition to exclusion or marginalization.”2 This definition is chock-full of great terms to unpack, but one of the most essential is belonging.

I was telling the nice lady from earlier, Anita, that once you get used to it, once you think that you're from there—that was my mistake, because I started not caring—you just start doing stuff that if you don't have papers you should know you're not supposed to do.

Also, potentially potent in strengthening belongingness is individual coun-seling that encourages adolescents to find strength in relationships with family members, such that they are able to maintain these relationships even as they move from school to school. For each of these interventions, a student’s ability to find belongingness through healthy relationships, and gain strength from them, can be emphasized. Thus, by building belongingness through building healthy relationships, students can become resilient against negative threats. These are the types of interventions that can be supported by the result that belongingness is an effective moderator of the influence of peer acceptance on loneliness. In this way, these findings support Gysbers’s (2004) and Forrest’s (2004) encouragement for counseling psychology research to be informative for school counselors

for the outcome of loneliness, and revealed belongingness as a moderator for this outcome (Table 2), is valuable in the establishment of belongingness as noteworthy for the social lives of adolescents. The graphing of the post hoc analysis of this relationship (Figure 1) further clarifies the importance of belongingness. This informs an understanding of the social environment of a multicultural middle school by showing that while those who have low peer acceptance are at risk, those who are strong in belongingness are some-what buffered against such consequences. Thus, belongingness appears to be a protective factor. Because the loneliness questionnaire, the CLS, targeted loneliness in the school environment, it was logical to expect that peer acceptance would be significantly correlated to loneliness, which it was. That students with high belongingness levels showed essentially no impact from peer acceptance levels on loneliness at school is notable. It suggests that high levels of belongingness can buffer the negative effects of low peer acceptance. This begins to establish belongingness as important in the lives of adolescents and as a promising factor in promoting resilience.

The relationship between loneliness and depression was steeper for low belongingness than for high belongingness, meaning that students with low belongingness were more vulnerable to depression in relation to feelings of loneliness than were their high-belongingness counterparts

With only loneli-ness in the equation with depression, the relationship was significant (R2= .28, p< .001). When belongingness was introduced, there was an increase in the strength of the equation (R2 increased by .02, p= .005). Finally, the interaction between belongingness and loneliness was significant with levels of depres-sion (R2 increased by .03, p= .001). Thus, there is support for Hypothesis 2, that belongingness does moderate the influence of loneliness on depression.

This shows that belongingness was a moderator of the influence of peer acceptance on loneliness, supporting Hypothesis 1

The relationship between loneliness and peer acceptance was plotted at three levels of belongingness: low (-1 SD), medium (M), and high belongingness (+1 SD). With low belong-ingness, there is a somewhat steep relationship between loneliness and peer acceptance. This means that students who had limited belongingness were highly vulnerable to feelings of loneliness from rejection by their peers. At medium levels of belongingness, the relationship between peer acceptance and loneliness was not as steep, yet peer acceptance still had a clear influ-ence on loneliness. At high levels of belongingness, the line representing the relationship between loneliness and peer acceptance was nearly horizontal. In regard to loneliness, this reveals that students who were high in belong-ingness were almost unaffected by their level of peer acceptance, whereas students who were low in belongingness were susceptible to experiencing loneliness at low levels of peer acceptance

One possibly important strengths-based moderator for children and adolescents is belongingness. Feeling a sense of belongingness to a wider social group is considered a ubiquitous need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Osterman, 2000). This notion is rooted in Maslow’s (1987) conceptualization that humans, like other animals, have the need “to herd, to flock, to join, and to belong” (p. 20). Belonging may be established in peer groups at school, but youth may also find belongingness through other social channels, such as teachers, parents, extended family, or community groups. This is supported by research from Appleton, Christenson, Kim, and Reschly (2006) that links the social context of students to academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Furthermore, it is important to differentiate belongingness from other allied variables associated with interpersonal functioning, such as social support and peer acceptance. While social support and peer acceptance connote a passive engagement of the individual with the social network, a sense of belonging represents a more active engagement and an internal experience of a strong psychological connection to a group (Brown, Alpert, Lent, Hunt, & Brady, 1988; Mallinckrodt, 1992; Mallinckrodt & Wei, 2005). Belongingness then involves a dyad, group, or community that one senses one’s current active membership completes. When individuals belong (have belongingness), they believe a dyad, group, or community is not complete without them, and they are not complete without the dyad, group, or community.

Because the majority (57%) of young people met their capitalmentor through school, focused efforts should be made to create "mentor-rich environments" (Freedman, 1993, p. xxiv) in and around school. Social workers are in a prime position to take on this task, as social workers are already working in the school setting and have relationships with key potential mentors, including teachers and other school personnel. To "stock the pond," social workers should consider trainingteachers and school personnel toacknowledge their potential asa capitalmentor. This could include trainingteachers andschool personnelto recognize the power they have to connect young people to resources they do not have access to in their current social circles, and to proactivelyengage with these young people. School social workers should also advocate for institutional support of informal mentorship, including the creation of opportunities for one-on-one connections and rewarding teachers for prioritizing mentorship

The capitalrelationship is likely with someone from outside the family, and is not marked by feelings of closeness or frequent communication.Young people go to capitalmentors for sound advice. These relationships connected young people to new resources and bolstered young peoples'feelingsof connectedness to a common group.

The third function mentors play in promoting upward mobility for young people is the direct effect the provision of social capital (both bridging and bonding capital) has on building blocks of mobility(Ellwood et al., 2016). Bonding capital from a mentor who is also a teacher could foster feelings of school connectedness, which has been demonstrated to lead to academic engagement and ultimately, educational attainment (Ashtiani & Feliciano, 2018; Li, Lerner, & Lerner, 2010). An employer could have a similar effect by providing bonding capital. If a young person feels connected to the workplace or mission of the work place through their mentoring relationships with their employer, they are likely to have higherjob satisfaction and more opportunities for promotion (Ghosh &Reio 2013). Bridging capital can also have a direct effect on key links in the chain. Studies have shown that bridging mentors (commonly teachers and school personnel) were likely to promote educational attainment and employment

Those who report feeling emotionally supported have higher rates of academic competence (Sterrett, Jones, Mckee, & Kincaid, 2011) and strong academic outcomes (Wentzel, Russell & Baker, 2016). Additionally, adults who have achieved upward mobility are more likely to report instrumentally supportive relationships than those who were not mobile (Chan, 2017). Clearly, social support has a direct influence on someof thebuilding blocks of mobility

Social capital gives attention to larger social contexts (e.g., churches, schools, neighborhoods) as important aspects of one's social life. Those who study social support thus credit things like civic engagement and school involvement as important actions supporting social capital. Social support, conversely, focuses almost exclusively on relationships between two individuals.

Putnam (2000) extended the terminology of weak and strong ties to bridging and bonding capital. Bonding capital is typically provided through an emotionally close and long-standing relationship, and strengthens the individual's connection to a common community. For example, if a youth identifies a teacher as their informal mentor, that teacher can build on their common social network (e.g., the school community) and have the youth feel more connected to and a part of the school as a whole.

For instance, much attention has been paid to informal mentoring and educational outcomes: mentored youth are more likely to feel connected to their school (Black, Grenard, Sussman, & Rohrbach, 2010), have better grades (Chang et al., 2010), attend college (DuBois & Silverthorn, 2005a; Reynolds & Parrish, 2017) and receive a bachelor’s degree (Miranda-Chan, Fruiht, Dubon, & Wray-Lake, 2016; Erickson, McDonald, Elder, 2009). Cumulatively, these studies, along with a 2018 meta-analysis (Van Dam et al.) suggest a strong and consistent relationship between having an informal mentor and positive educational outcomes.

Reach out to those who didn’t do so well and express your willingness to help them. Check in with students who have missed a class or two.

It is amazing what calling someone by their name can do for a community and a feeling of belonging.

People like to belong to things small enough to feel.

“If you’re not on MySpace, you don’t exist.”

Without her, nothing would have happened. I would have remained isolated probably, unhappily in a disconnected classroom.

Our Right Minds