This Land Was Made For You and Me: Evaluating the Relationship Between Undergraduates’ Sense of Belonging and Political Participation
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: As politics takes a forefront in daily conversations, understanding political participation (or lack thereof) is increasingly important. College students are a particularly interesting population due to their inherent recency to the political sphere and susceptibility to social norms (Shulman & Levine, 2012; Renström et al., 2021). Social norms may impact political participation through feelings of belonging, in particular. Social acceptance by following social norms is a significant predictor of belonging, which has shown to be associated with better perceptions of education experience (Freeman et al., 2007; Maluenda-Albornoz, et al., 2022). Students who feel they belong to their university may experience more motivation for participation (Maluenda-Albornoz, et al., 2022). I hypothesized that a student’s sense of belonging would be associated with political activity, political interest, and political interaction. I employed a survey design that included reliable and valid scales of belonging, school belonging, political efficacy, activism, and behaviors. Using a sample of college students (N=186) from North Carolina, I found that both general belonging and school belonging significantly predicted external political efficacy when controlling for political ideology. Political ideology also moderated this effect. Further analysis should explore other interpersonal variables that could affect college students' political participation.
DOI: 10.17615/pdpe-3t05
Author: McKenzie, Nora
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6944463854
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