The Effect of Socioeconomic Status and Race on Sense of Belonging and College Satisfaction

Abstract Background Social capital is generally portrayed to be protective of adolescents’ health and wellbeing against the effects of socioeconomic inequalities. However, few empirical evidence exist on this protective role of social capital regarding adolescents’ wellbeing in the low-and middle-income country (LMIC) context. This study examines the potential for social capital to be a protective health resource by investigating whether social capital can mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and wellbeing of Ghanaian adolescents. It also examines how SES and social capital relate to different dimensions of adolescents’ wellbeing in different social contexts. Methods The study employed a cross-sectional survey involving a randomly selected 2068 adolescents (13-18 years) from 15 schools (8 Senior and 7 Junior High Schools) in Ghana. Relationships were assessed using multivariate regression models. Results Three measures of familial social capital (family sense of belonging, family autonomy support, and family control) were found to be important protective factors of both adolescents’ life satisfaction and happiness against the effects of socioeconomic status. One measure of school social capital (school sense of belonging) was found to augment adolescents’ wellbeing but played no mediating role in the SES-wellbeing relationship. A proportion of about 69 and 42% of the total effect of SES on happiness and life satisfaction were mediated by social capital respectively. Moreover, there were variations in how SES and social capital related to the different dimensions of adolescents’ wellbeing. Conclusion Social capital is a significant mechanism through which SES impacts the wellbeing of adolescents. Social capital is a potential protective health resource that can be utilised by public health policy to promote adolescents’ wellbeing irrespective of socioeconomic inequalities. Moreover, the role of the family (home) in promoting adolescents’ wellbeing is superior to that of school which prompts targeted policy interventions. For a holistic assessment of adolescents’ subjective wellbeing, both life evaluations (life satisfaction) and positive emotions (happiness) should be assessed concomitantly.

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College Satisfaction, Sense of Achievement, Student Happiness and Sense of Belonging of Freshmen in Chinese Private Colleges: Mediation Effect of Emotion Regulation

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182211736 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (22) ◽

pp. 11736

Author(s):

Jing Tian ◽

Mohan Zhang ◽

Haitao Zhou ◽

Jianfen Wu

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Private Colleges ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

College Satisfaction ◽

Mediating Role

Sense of belonging constitutes a critical component of college students’ retention and academic achievement, especially in disadvantaged higher education institutions such as private colleges in China. Using nationwide survey data (n = 3816) from Chinese private colleges, this study explores how college satisfaction, sense of achievement, and student happiness contribute to freshmen’ sense of belonging. Structural equation modeling analyses have identified the significant positive associations between freshmen’s emotion regulation and sense of belonging. In particular, emotion regulation plays a mediating role in the relations between college satisfaction, sense of achievement, student happiness, and the sense of belonging. Therefore, private colleges should design and implement orientation programs to improve freshmen’s learning experience, especially college satisfaction and student happiness, to enhance their sense of belonging.

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Examining the role of perceived prestige in the link between students’ subjective socioeconomic status and sense of belonging

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations ◽

10.1177/1368430219827361 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 356-370 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Mickaël Jury ◽

Cristina Aelenei ◽

Chen Chen ◽

Céline Darnon ◽

Andrew J. Elliot

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Low Socioeconomic Status ◽

Sense Of Belonging ◽

Low Ses ◽

Low Socioeconomic ◽

Subjective Socioeconomic Status ◽

Collegiate Experience ◽

Subjective Ses ◽

Low Ses Students

Low socioeconomic status (SES) students have a lower sense of belonging to college than high-SES students. Due to the importance of sense of belonging in the college pathway, understanding the reason for this relation is particularly important. Here, we argue that in addition to having less access to resources, low-SES students in the college context also perceive themselves as having lower prestige than their high-SES counterparts. Thus, in the present research, we tested perceived prestige as a mediator of the link between subjective SES and sense of belonging to college. We conducted 3 studies in 2 different countries (USA and China), and these investigations provided evidence that the lower students’ subjective SES, the lower their self-attributed prestige, and that prestige mediated the relation between students’ subjective SES and their sense of belonging to college. The implications of these findings for understanding the collegiate experience of low-SES students are discussed.

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Low Socioeconomic Status Patients Willing to E-Mail

Skin & Allergy News ◽

10.1016/s0037-6337(08)70793-9 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 39 (10) ◽

pp. 66

Author(s):

ROBERT FINN

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Low Socioeconomic Status ◽

Low Socioeconomic ◽

E Mail

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Does Low (vs. High) Subjective Socioeconomic Status Increase Both Prosociality and Aggression?

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000331 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 76-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Tobias Greitemeyer ◽

Christina Sagioglou

Keyword(s):

Socioeconomic Status ◽

Subjective Socioeconomic Status ◽

Subjective Ses

Abstract. Previous research has shown that people of low subjective socioeconomic status (SES) are more likely to experience compassion and provide help to others than people of high SES. However, low subjective SES also appears to be related to more hostile and aggressive responding. Given that prosociality is typically an antagonist of aggression, we examined whether low subjective SES individuals could be indeed more prosocial and antisocial. Five studies – two correlational, three experimental – found that low subjective SES was related to increased aggression. In contrast, subjective SES was not negatively related to trait and state measures of prosociality.

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