Contextual predictors of belongingness in military and veteran students on university campuses.

Abstract

Objective: Prior research demonstrated that military/veteran students report lower belongingness than civilian students, but the reasons why remain unclear. We investigated the impact of demographic characteristics, state and local politics, and school-specific veteran resources on reported belongingness. Participants: Participants included 104,162 students (2,814 military/veteran) who completed a survey for the Healthy Minds Study between 2014 and 2018. Methods: A combined mixed effect model and models stratified by military status to determine differences in belongingness between military/veteran students and civilian students. Results: Unadjusted models indicated military/veteran students reported lower belongingness than civilian students (b = -0.10, p < . 001). However, adjusting for demographic characteristics and state and school attributes reduced this effect (b = -0.04, p = .001). Conclusion: We were able to demonstrate that military/veteran students' reduced belongingness is largely due to the demographic differences among military/veteran students rather than aspects of the school or political leanings.