Event Title

Life inside the bubble: Social belonging at Colby College

Location

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

Start Date

30-4-2015 2:00 PM

End Date

30-4-2015 3:55 PM

Project Type

Poster

Description

All college students face a significant transition moving from high school to college. One factor that can influence the ease of this transition is having a sense of belonging at the new institution. In the Colby Emotion and Mood Lab, a study was conducted investigating factors that either hinder or promote social belonging for students on Colbys campus. Research assistants facilitated discussion in 12 focus groups; topics stemmed from an original set of questions related to social belonging but conversations varied. The full content of the groups was then transcribed, coded, and analyzed following grounded theory methods to find overarching themes related to social belonging. The five most prevalent themes were: drinking, first year experience, under-represented identities, cliques, and extracurriculars. These results suggest that there are certain areas that offer enhanced and diminished levels of social belonging.

Faculty Sponsor

Erin Sheets

Sponsoring Department

Colby College. Psychology Dept.

CLAS Field of Study

Social Sciences

Event Website

http://www.colby.edu/clas

ID

1649

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Apr 30th, 2:00 PM Apr 30th, 3:55 PM

Life inside the bubble: Social belonging at Colby College

Parker-Reed, SSWAC

All college students face a significant transition moving from high school to college. One factor that can influence the ease of this transition is having a sense of belonging at the new institution. In the Colby Emotion and Mood Lab, a study was conducted investigating factors that either hinder or promote social belonging for students on Colbys campus. Research assistants facilitated discussion in 12 focus groups; topics stemmed from an original set of questions related to social belonging but conversations varied. The full content of the groups was then transcribed, coded, and analyzed following grounded theory methods to find overarching themes related to social belonging. The five most prevalent themes were: drinking, first year experience, under-represented identities, cliques, and extracurriculars. These results suggest that there are certain areas that offer enhanced and diminished levels of social belonging.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/56