Research On The Sense Of Belonging Of College Student Associations

Student societies in colleges and universities are mass organizations organized voluntarily and spontaneously by college students for common hobbies or responsibilities. They are important organizations aimed at cultivating the students' abilities to adapt to the society, promoting their physical and mental health development, and improving their comprehensive quality. Therefore, their importance is becoming increasingly obvious. Through checking the literature, the author finds that as to the current research on societies in colleges or universities domestically, previous scholars mainly studied how to manage and build societies in terms of research content. Few scholars paid attention to the psychological condition of their members. In research methods, more scholars tended to use the qualitative research methods instead of quantitative ones. This paper will, through the method of questionnaire, do empirical research on the sense of belonging of college students in societies. This paper selects 527 members of societies in colleges and universities in Nanjing to be tested, investigates their sense of belonging in those societies, develops a questionnaire about it, examines its status quo, and discusses the factors that influence their sense of belonging. The results are as follows:(1) The sense of belonging of college students in societies is multi-dimensional, including that in identity, emotion and mentality. On the basis of theoretical research, this paper, in strict accordance with the principle of scale development of psychology, develops a questionnaire on the sense of belonging of college students in societies. This questionnaire has 14 projects as well as good reliability and validity.(2) The sense of belonging of college students in societies is in the medium level; it has no significant difference in gender; but it has significant differences in their duties in societies. For example, the sense of belonging of key members in societies is significantly stronger than that of ordinary members. Moreover, there are also significant differences as to their years in societies. Students who have been in societies for 2 or 3 years have a comparatively stronger sense of belonging than those who have been in societies for only a year. In society categories, there are significant differences in the sense of belonging among students who join societies oriented at recreation and service.(3) There exists a significant positive correlation between the sense of belonging of college students in societies and interpersonal relationships, self-improvement, segregation of duties, development prospects and the influence of societies in the environment of societies; a significant negative correlation between the emotionality of personality; and a significant positive correlation between friendliness, openness, conscientiousness and extraversion. Through regression analysis, it can be found that interpersonal relationships, self-improvement, segregation of duties, friendliness and extraversion all can positively predict the sense of belonging of students in societies.From the above results, following conclusions can be drawn:(1) The questionnaire on the sense of belonging of college students in societies developed by this study has good reliability and validity, and can be used as a measurement tool for it.(2) There exists a significant difference in demographic variables as to the sense of belonging of college students in societies.(3) Interpersonal relationships, self-improvement, segregation of duties, development prospects, the influence of societies and the personality of individual student in the environment of societies are the factors that influence the sense of belonging of college students in societies.