| Sense of belonging is an important outcome of participation in a social network that has been shown to be correlated with several indicators of psychological well-being (Hagerty, Williams, Coyne, & Early, 1996). Sense of belonging encompasses two dimensions: fit and valued involvement (Hagerty, Lynch-Sauer, Patusky, Bouwsema, & Collier, 1992). These dimensions have been shown to be important to the well being of a variety of populations, particularly college students (Hagerty et al., 1992). While several studies have demonstrated the relationship between an individual's participation in general forms of social networks (i.e., face-to-face interactions with members of one's social network) and their sense of belonging, few studies have examined whether individuals can achieve a greater sense of belonging through the use of computer-mediated forms of social networking, such as social networking websites. Because college students make up a large percentage of social networking site users, and because sense of belonging has been shown to be especially important to college students at their stage of development, the present study examined the relationship between college students' use of social networking sites and their sense of belonging.;To explore this relationship, 141 undergraduate students at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut, completed self-report questionnaires regarding their participation in face-to-face interactions with friends, internet use, social networking site use, and their sense of belonging. According to the results, nearly all students (98.6%) reported having a Facebook account, and 93.6% of students ranked Facebook as their favorite social networking site. Results also revealed that students' sense of belonging was positively correlated with both the number of hours per day in which students reported using social networking sites and with the total number of friends students reported having on social networking sites. Interestingly, the relationship between number of friends on social networking sites and sense of belonging was found to be stronger for male students than for female students. These findings suggest that the use of social networking sites may benefit college students by increasing their sense of belonging. Most importantly, this study contributes to the small, but growing, research regarding participation in social networking sites. |
