Investigating Belonging as a Mediator between Culturally Engaging Campus Environments and Satisfaction

Abstract

Reducing student attrition and drop-out rates is of paramount concern for higher education scholars, policymakers, and practitioners in evaluating institutional effectiveness. There is some evidence that students’ satisfaction can be critical to the success of any postsecondary educational institution, but little is known about how campus environments shape students’ satisfaction. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the authors use multi-institutional survey data to examine the relationship between Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE), sense of belonging, and satisfaction. Specifically, we explore the direct effects of CECE indicators on satisfaction and the mediating role of sense of belonging. Our results showed that a direct effect of CECE indicators is positively associated with satisfaction. Results also indicated that an indirect effect of CECE indicators contributes to a significant increase in satisfaction through sense of belonging. Implications for research and practice are discussed.