Race and Belonging in School: How Anticipated and Experienced Belonging Affect Choice, Persistence, and Performance

Abstract

Background/Context
A sense of belonging in school is a complex construct that relies heavily on students’ perceptions of the educational environment, especially their relationships with other students. Some research suggests that a sense of belonging in school is important to all students. However, we argue that the nature and meaning of belonging in school is different for students targeted by negative racial stereotypes—such as African American, Latino/a, Native American, and some Asian American students. Our conceptual framework draws upon stigma and stereotype threat theory and, specifically, the concept of belonging uncertainty, to explore how concerns about belonging in academic contexts may have different meaning for—and thus differentially affect the academic outcomes of—White students compared with underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students.

Purpose/Objective
Although feelings of belonging are important to all students, there are reasons to believe that students from stigmatized racial and ethnic groups may have especially salient concerns about belonging in school because their social identities make them vulnerable to negative stereotyping and social identity threat. Three studies examined how college and middle school students’ feelings of belonging at school relate to their academic aspirations, motivation, and performance.

Research Design
One experiment (Study 1) and two longitudinal studies (Studies 2-3) examined the influence of belonging among students in different educational settings. Study 1 examined first year college students’ social representations of the kinds of students that comprised various majors on campus and their self-reported sense of belonging in those majors. Study 2 examined middle school students’ self-reported sense of belonging and how it related to their educational goals and efficacy. Study 3 examined college students’ belonging and its relationship to academic performance one year later.

Setting
The settings for the three studies varied. The setting for Study 1 was a large, urban, public university in a major Midwestern city that is racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse. The setting for Study 2 was Prince George's County, a predominantly African American, largely middle-class county near Washington, DC from which the student sample of middle school students was drawn. The setting for Study 3 was a large predominantly White “flagship” university located in a Midwest college town.

Data Collection and Analysis
Findings revealed that college students’ anticipated sense of belonging in various college majors was predicted by their social representations of the students that comprised those majors. Both White students and students of color anticipated more belonging in majors where they perceived their group to be represented. In Study 2, middle school students’ self-reported belonging in school predicted educational efficacy and ambitions of African American middle school students, but not of White students. Finally, in Study 3, self-reported feelings of belonging in the first weeks of college predicted second semester grades (from university transcripts) among stigmatized college students of color, but not White college students (Study 3). Taken together, we suggest a more nuanced understanding of belonging is essential to creating supportive schools for everyone.

Full text

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Teachers College Record Volume 117, 120304, December 2015, 40 pages
Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University
0161-4681
Race and Belonging in School: How
Anticipated and Experienced Belonging
Affect Choice, Persistence, and Performance
MARY C. MURPHY
Indiana University
SABRINA ZIRKEL
Mills College
Background/Context: A sense of belonging in school is a complex construct that relies heavily
on students’ perceptions of the educational environment, especially their relationships with
other students. Some research suggests that a sense of belonging in school is important to all
students. However, we argue that the nature and meaning of belonging in school is different
for students targeted by negative racial stereotypes—such as African American, Latino/a,
Native American, and some Asian American students. Our conceptual framework draws
upon stigma and stereotype threat theory and, specifically, the concept of belonging uncertain-
ty, to explore how concerns about belonging in academic contexts may have different meaning
for—and thus differentially affect the academic outcomes of—White students compared with
underrepresented racial and ethnic minority students.
Purpose/Objective: Although feelings of belonging are important to all students, there are
reasons to believe that students from stigmatized racial and ethnic groups may have especially
salient concerns about belonging in school because their social identities make them vulner-
able to negative stereotyping and social identity threat. Three studies examined how college
and middle school students’ feelings of belonging at school relate to their academic aspira-
tions, motivation, and performance.
Research Design: One experiment (Study 1) and two longitudinal studies (Studies 2-3)
examined the influence of belonging among students in different educational settings. Study
1 examined first year college students’ social representations of the kinds of students that com-
prised various majors on campus and their self-reported sense of belonging in those majors.
Study 2 examined middle school students’ self-reported sense of belonging and how it related
to their educational goals and efficacy. Study 3 examined college students’ belonging and its
relationship to academic performance one year later.
Setting: The settings for the three studies varied. The setting for Study 1 was a large, urban,
public university in a major Midwestern city that is racially, ethnically, and socioeconomi-
cally diverse. The setting for Study 2 was Prince George’s County, a predominantly African

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2
American, largely middle-class county near Washington, DC from which the student sample
of middle school students was drawn. The setting for Study 3 was a large predominantly
White “flagship” university located in a Midwest college town.
Data Collection and Analysis: Findings revealed that college students’ anticipated sense
of belonging in various college majors was predicted by their social representations of the
students that comprised those majors. Both White students and students of color anticipated
more belonging in majors where they perceived their group to be represented. In Study 2,
middle school students’ self-reported belonging in school predicted educational efficacy and
ambitions of African American middle school students, but not of White students. Finally, in
Study 3, self-reported feelings of belonging in the first weeks of college predicted second semes-
ter grades (from university transcripts) among stigmatized college students of color, but not
White college students (Study 3). Taken together, we suggest a more nuanced understanding
of belonging is essential to creating supportive schools for everyone.
“The most important factor in choosing a college is fit,” according to
Martha O’Connell, a professional academic advisor who helps high school
students identify the best college for them. O’Connell urges students to
visit potential schools, if possible, and to “Imagine yourself as part of the
community” (O’Connell, 2007). Gauge, in short, whether you will feel
like you belong there. Her advice provides a telling, if familiar, story about
how students make many academic choices. In this paper, we explore the
influence of anticipated and experienced belonging on students’ academic
choices, persistence, and performance in school and college. In particu-
lar, we use stigma and stereotype threat theory as a framework to illumi-
nate how different aspects of belonging will have differential influences
on the outcomes of White students and negatively stereotyped students of
color including African American, Latino/a, Native American, and some
Asian American students.
A “sense of belonging” in school is a complex construct that relies
heavily on students’ perceptions of the educational environment, espe-
cially their relationships with other students (e.g., Juvonen, 2006; Read,
Archer, & Leathwood, 2003). That is, a sense of belonging is socially con-
structed, informed by a student’s experiences in a particular educational
context. Research suggests that a sense of belonging in school is impor-
tant to all students. Feelings of belonging in school have been linked to
higher levels of academic engagement (Patrick, Ryan, & Kaplan, 2007),
as well as academic motivation and persistence across racial and ethnic
groups (Anderman & Freeman, 2004; Battistich, Solomon, Kim, Watson,
& Schaps, 1995; Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Finn, 1989;
Goodenow, 1993; Goodenow & Grady, 1993; Hausmann, Schofield, &
Woods, 2007; Mahoney & Cairns, 1997; Sánchez, Colon, & Esparza, 2005;
Tinto, 1994; Wentzel, 1998). Belonging has also been linked, although

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inconsistently, to improved academic achievement (Faircloth & Hamm,
2005; Juvonen, 2006; Roeser, Midgley, & Urdan, 1996; Solomon et al.,
2000). In much of this work and theory, however, belonging has been
studied as a universal construct having the same meaning and influence
on educational experiences for all students (e.g., Baumeister & Leary,
1995). In this paper, we agree that belonging is important to everyone.
However, we argue that the nature and meaning of belonging in school
is different for students targeted by negative racial stereotypes—such as
African American, Latino/a, Native American, and some Asian American
students. Our conceptual framework draws upon stigma and stereotype
threat theory and, specifically, the concept of belonging uncertainty, to
explore how concerns about belonging in academic contexts may have
different meaning for—and thus differentially affect the academic out-
comes of—White students compared with underrepresented racial and
ethnic minority students.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Although feelings of belonging are important to all students, there are
reasons to believe that students from stigmatized racial and ethnic groups
may have especially salient concerns about belonging in school because
their social identities make them vulnerable to negative stereotyping and
social identity threat—the threat that one’s social group may be deval-
ued in a particular setting (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). Stereotype
threat theory (e.g., Steele, 2011; Steele et al., 2002) highlights the role
that belonging to a stigmatized group plays in our lives. When our iden-
tities are stigmatized by negative stereotypes, we experience stereotype
threat—a psychological state characterized by arousal and anxiety that
interferes with performance, well-being, and the process of identifica-
tion with the domain in question. Within education, longstanding stereo-
types about the intellectual or academic capacities of African American or
Latino/a students mean that those contexts become threatening to their
social identities. Similarly, though Asian American students may not be
subject to the same negative stereotypes about their intellectual capacities,
they are often the target of other negative stereotypes (e.g., perpetual “for-
eigner”) and questions about their standing and whether they “belong” in
a variety of academic contexts (e.g., Cheryan & Monin, 2005; Lee, 2005;
2011; Shimpi & Zirkel, 2012).
In this framework, and within this article, students’ racial and ethnic
identifications serve as a means of identifying an aspect of their lived ex-
periences—the shared experience of contending with questions about
whether they are seen to “belong” in educational settings, due to their

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4
racial and ethnic group memberships. This is not a study of students’
engagement with their own racial and ethnic identities, or even of their
active engagement with the racialized nature of many educational con-
texts. Rather, here we use racial and ethnic identifications to illuminate
something about our participants’ experiences that is shared among stig-
matized groups: the need to manage and operate within a context where
negative stereotypes about ones group, abilities, and, indeed, one’s likeli-
hood of “belonging,” are culturally pervasive.
Educational settings are raced in the sense that the social construction
of “race” is enacted and instantiated through a variety of social practices
in school (e.g., Leonardo, 2010; Lewis, 2003). Moreover, educational set-
tings are places in which much attention and focus is centered on sort-
ing people based on intellectual performance and achievement. In such
a context, concerns about negative intellectual stereotypes that target
one’s group are heightened and individuals belonging to such stigmatized
groups may experience concerns about whether or not they “belong” in
those settings. Previous research with African American students in an
elite university (Walton & Cohen, 2007) and African American, Latino/a,
and Asian American middle school students (Zirkel, 2004) demonstrate
the negative impact that belonging concerns can have for students’ en-
gagement, enjoyment, and performance in educational settings.
Concerns about fitting in and developing social relationships with peers
are exacerbated among students of color entering predominantly White
settings—demonstrated among studies of African American students en-
tering social interactions with White students (Richeson & Shelton, 2007;
Richeson, Trawalter, & Shelton, 2005; Shelton & Richeson, 2005, 2006),
and African American (e.g., Chavous, 2000; Tatum, 1997), Latino/a
(e.g., Ethier & Deaux, 1990; 1994; Gibson, Gandara, & Koyama, 2004;
Villalpando, 2003), Native American (e.g., Brayboy, 2004; Fryberg, Markus,
Oyserman, & Stone, 2008) and Asian American students (e.g., Cheryan &
Monin, 2005; Shimpi & Zirkel, 2012) entering predominantly White col-
leges and universities. For example, African American students often ex-
press concerns about rejection in academic settings (Richeson & Shelton,
2007). Likewise, Asian American students experience identity-based rejec-
tion in school contexts and express concerns about being perceived as
foreigners who have not assimilated linguistically, culturally and socially
(Cheryan & Monin, 2005). Shimpi and Zirkel (2012) report several cas-
es illuminating the ways in which White Americans often express anger
and resentment toward Asian American students and explicitly question
whether they “belong” in a variety of educational contexts. For instance,
Asian American students often report being asked, “Where are you really
from?” by others in school regardless of how long they, or their family,

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5
have lived in the United States (Lien, Conway, & Wong, 2004; Wu, 2003).
Latino/as also experience this type of identity threat due to stereotypes
that people from their group have immigrated to the United States ille-
gally (K. Johnson, 1997). Thus, students of color, across a number of racial
and ethnic identities, may feel uncertain about whether they are perceived
to “belong” in particular educational settings. This pattern also extends
to other marginalized groups in college settings. For example, Ostrove
and Long (2007) found that, at a prestigious liberal arts college, feelings
of belonging fully mediated the relationship between both objective and
subjective measures of students’ social class origins and their college out-
comes such that the negative impact of lower SES on students’ academic
and social adjustment, as well as on their academic performance, disap-
peared when lower SES students experienced greater feelings of belong-
ing on campus.
The current research focuses on how feelings of belonging at school
relate to students’ academic aspirations, motivation, and performance.
Unlike research that examines how stereotypes and institutional racism
can become internalized and hamper students’ self-worth, this research
takes a more sociocultural view—locating the problem in the local con-
text or situation. Unlike theories of internalization, stereotype threat
theory examines how widely known racial and ethnic stereotypes that
exist “in the air” within educational settings have a disproportionate in-
fluence on the sense of belonging that students from stigmatized racial
and ethnic groups may achieve in school. According to stereotype threat
theory, students are aware of stereotypes that impugn their group, and
they also know that others in the academic environment (e.g., teachers,
peers) could potentially endorse those stereotypes. Rather than internal-
izing the stereotypes, many students respond to this “stereotype threat”
by attempting to disprove the stereotypes about their group—to show
that the stereotypes do not apply to them as an individual (Steele, 1997).
However, these stereotypes constitute an additional cognitive and emo-
tional burden that interferes with a sense of belonging at school among
students from stigmatized groups, including African American, Latino,
and sometimes, Asian American, students (for a review, see Schmader,
Johns, & Forbes, 2008). As Linda Akutagawa—a Japanese-American,
CEO, and President of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics
(LEAP)—describes, “stereotypes make people feel like they don’t be-
long, like they’re an outsider looking in” (Straczynski, 2014). Indeed,
research suggests that while students from stigmatized racial and eth-
nic groups may experience a strong sense of self-worth and self-esteem
overall, stereotypes in the educational context may nonetheless diminish
their sense of belonging at school.

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6
Although students from stigmatized groups may be less certain about
belonging in academic contexts than their nonstigmatized peers, if they
do achieve a sense of belonging, those feelings of connection may have
more significant consequences for their academic outcomes. For example,
Zirkel (2004) found that feelings of belonging were a significant predictor
of enjoyment of academic work and interest in pursuing academic goals
among Black, Latino/a, and Asian American students. However, this was
not the case among White students. Similarly, Walton and Cohen (2007,
2011) found that an intervention designed to increase students’ sense of
belonging and “fit” on campus motivated African American students to in-
crease the amount of time they spent studying, improving their academic
performance and graduation rates over time; interestingly, the interven-
tion had no similar impact on White students’ behavior or outcomes. This
research suggests that experiencing a sense of belonging in school may be
particularly linked to academic motivation among students from stigma-
tized groups. Thus, feeling a sense of belonging at school may be an im-
portant motivator for stigmatized students, reducing their concerns about
negative group stereotypes when they have achieved a sense of fit with the
academic context.
This article explores the ways that belonging influences students’ aca-
demic choices, experiences, goals and outcomes. In particular, we focus
on two different aspects of belonging: (a) “anticipated belonging”—that
is, students’ anticipations about how much they think they will belong in a
future educational context, and (b) “experienced belonging”—that is, the
extent to which students actually feel connected to and accepted by their
peers within a current educational context. Although all students might
implicitly or explicitly consult their anticipated sense of belonging when
making future-oriented academic decisions, we believe that stigmatized
students might have greater reason to experience belonging uncertainty
when situated within their actual academic environments. As a result, we
hypothesize that factors that help to reduce this belonging uncertainty
will be particularly meaningful to stigmatized students—shaping their
academic motivation and performance in school. For example, although
relationships with peers are important to all students, the impact of these
relationships on students’ commitment, persistence, and performance
will be greater for stigmatized than for non-stigmatized students. This
work goes beyond previous studies of belonging by highlighting the con-
texts in which belonging has implications for the academic outcomes of
all students and when it has implications primarily for students of color as
members of a stigmatized group.

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7
OVERVIEW OF PRESENT STUDIES
Belonging, we argue, may matter for everyone, but may matter especially
for some. What are the conditions in which belonging matters more for
some students than for others? In a series of three quantitative studies, we
explore the factors that contribute to feelings of belonging among White
students and students of color in a range of academic settings, includ-
ing middle school and college, as well as predominantly White settings
and settings in which racial minority students form a large majority. We
then examine the impact of those feelings of belonging on students’ aca-
demic choices, goals, and performance. With these studies, we hope to
illuminate the educational trajectories that feelings of belonging (or not
belonging) set up for students who are from social groups differentially
targeted by negative stereotypes. Specifically, we investigate how antici-
pated and experienced belonging differently shapes young adolescents’ and
college students’ interests in pursuing higher education, their choices
of particular majors, and their academic performance. In Study 1, we
use an experimental design to explore whether college students possess
ideas about how students of various racial groups are dispersed through-
out academic fields (what we refer to as their “social representations” of
different fields). We next examine whether these social representations
significantly shape students’ anticipated sense of belonging and whether
this anticipated belonging, in turn, influences the likelihood that students
will consider majoring in these fields during their college careers. The
final two studies explore how students’ actual feelings of belonging and
social connection in school are linked to their academic outcomes using
naturalistic longitudinal designs to examine how these processes unfold
over time. In Study 2, we investigate whether African American and White
middle school students’ feelings of belonging at school influence the de-
velopment of their academic goals and feelings of educational efficacy.
Finally, in Study 3 we explore the relationship between feelings of belong-
ing and connection with school peers on students’ academic performance
over time, examining whether these relationships are different for White
students and students of color.
STUDY 1
Study 1 explored three questions. First, because both qualitative and quan-
titative studies have found that students’ sense of belonging is influenced,
in part, by the representation of, and connections with, others from one’s
own racial or ethnic group in school settings (see, e.g., Hurtado & Carter,
1997; D. R. Johnson et al., 2007; Read et al., 2003; Villalpando, 2003;

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Wilcox, Winn, & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005), we explored whether college students
carried with them perceptions about how students from different racial
and ethnic groups are distributed among various academic disciplines.
That is, do students perceive different disciplines in college to be com-
prised of different racial groups? If O’Connell’s advice (described at the
top of the paper) to “imagine yourself as part of the community” holds
for choosing a major, what do students imagine when considering vari-
ous majors? Which majors are thought to be predominantly White and
which include more underrepresented students of color? Second, we
examined whether these “social representations” of different disciplines
influence students’ anticipated feelings of belonging in those fields. We
suspected that all students have a sense of the “racial demographics”
of different majors, and that these representations would influence stu-
dents’ anticipated belonging in these domains. Specifically, we hypoth-
esized that when students perceive that their own social group is well
represented within certain college majors, they would report greater
anticipated belonging in those majors than ones where their racial or
ethnic group is perceived to be poorly represented. This should be true
for all students, across racial and ethnic groups.
Our last question examined how these social representations and antici-
pated belonging affect downstream outcomes. In this study, we focused on
whether these variables predict college students’ willingness to consider
majoring in various academic disciplines. We hypothesized that students’
social representations of race within academic disciplines might influence
their willingness to major in those disciplines. Moreover, we expected that
anticipated belonging would mediate the effect of social representations
on students’ willingness to major in various fields.
However, the simple mediation model, suggested above, could not tell
us whether these variables relate to each other similarly or differently
for White students and students of color. Given prior research described
above, we anticipated that a sense of belonging is important psycho-
logically for all students, especially as they look forward and anticipate
whether they will fit in an educational environment. However, stereotype
threat theory posits that some students of color—most especially African
American, Latino/a, Native American students, as well as many Asian
American students (e.g., Shih, Ambady, Richeson, Fujita, & Gray, 2002)—
may be particularly uncertain about their sense of belonging in college
either because their intellectual abilities or other aspects of their group
are negatively stereotyped in that domain and because they are numeri-
cally underrepresented in institutions of higher learning (D. R. Johnson
et al., 2007; Steele et al., 2002; Walton & Cohen, 2007). Thus, the social
representations of “who” students believe comprises academic disciplines

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9
may be more influential when forecasting whether stigmatized students
belong in a discipline, than those of non-stigmatized, White students. The
degree to which sense of belonging influences academic outcomes may be
different between numerically underrepresented students of color (e.g.,
African American, Latino/a and Asian American students) and White stu-
dents (Walton & Cohen, 2007; Zirkel, 2004). To examine these questions
directly, we tested whether the link between students’ social representa-
tions and belonging and the link between their belonging and willingness
to consider the academic majors was moderated by race (see Figure 1 for
the hypothesized model). That is, we examined whether White students
and underrepresented students of color would differ in (a) the degree to
which their social representations shaped their anticipated belonging and
(b) the degree to which their sense of belonging influenced their willing-
ness to consider academic majors.
Figure 1. The conditional indirect effect of students’ social
representations on their willingness to consider areas of study through
their perceived sense of belonging, moderated by students’ race
SETTING
The setting for this study is a large, urban, public university in a major
Midwestern city that is rated as having “selective” admissions—approxi-
mately two-thirds of applicants are admitted to the college. This university
is the only public university within the city and region and it is significantly
less expensive than other local university institutions. The student body
is reflective of the racial, ethnic, and economic diversity of the city and
includes a high proportion of first generation students from working class
families educated in the public school system. Eighty percent of students

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receive financial aid, primarily in the form of grants, in order to attend
the school. Although a major research university, it serves a largely com-
muter student body, with a high percentage of first generation students
and students working relatively large numbers of hours outside of school.
The university is racially and ethnically diverse; official college statistics re-
port that the student population is 42% White, 21% Asian American, 22%
Latino/a, 8% African American, and includes 7% “other” or unidentified.
The student body has a large immigrant base, with 1/3 of the students
identified as “English Language Learners.”
PARTICIPANTS
Three hundred and thirty-eight college freshmen participated in this
study for course credit. None of the students in the study had yet selected
a college major. Of the students who participated in the study, 158 self-
identified as White, 40 as African American, 66 as Asian American, and
74 as Latino/a. Unfortunately, students did not provide more specific
racial/ethnic group memberships (for example, very few Asian students
indicated a more specific identification indicating a national or regional
affiliation such as “Indian American” or “Southeast Asian” and no Latino
students specified whether their racial group membership was White or
Black). Thus, we used the broader racial or ethnic group memberships
that students themselves provided as an indication of racial and ethnic
self-identification. Students who identified as “Other” were excluded from
this study because it was unclear what they meant by “Other,” and because
students did not respond to the “Other” category in a uniform manner
(i.e., some listed regional or national identities such as “Middle Eastern”
or “Irish”).
PROCEDURE
Students participated in this study as part of an hour-long online ex-
periment involving the completion of many questionnaires presented as
separate studies. Each “study” was included its own consent form and in-
structions. In the present study, participants were asked to estimate the
racial breakdown of eighteen majors offered at their university (see the
Appendix for a list). Each participant was asked to rate only five majors
to reduce fatigue; this resulted in 1,690 evaluations. The majors were ran-
domly assigned to participants without replacement such that the website
presented 5 of the 18 majors in random order to each participant. This
random assignment to majors ensured that participants could not choose
to rate only majors that they liked or disliked, biasing the sample; instead,
each participant had an equal chance of rating any 5 of the 18 majors.

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Although, ideally, each participant would have rated every major, pilot
testing revealed that participants became fatigued when rating all eigh-
teen majors, compromising the quality of the data. Thus, each participant
was randomly assigned to rate just 5 of the 18 majors. Several studies later,
participants encountered a study about choosing college majors. During
this study, they rated their anticipated sense of belonging in the five ma-
jors that they previously considered. Finally, participants rated the likeli-
hood that they would major in these five fields.
MEASURES
Social Representations
Students were asked to assign a percentage to five racial categories
(White/Caucasian, Latino/Hispanic, African American/Black, Asian/
Asian American, and Other) representing their perceptions of the racial
background of students comprising each academic major. This question
read: “Approximately what is the racial/ethnic breakdown of [Education] majors
at this school?” Students were free to provide any percentage in the five ra-
cial categories that they deemed to be accurate. These numbers summed
to 100% of the majors in those fields.
Anticipated Belonging
Three questions adapted from Murphy, Garcia, and Steele (2014) mea-
sured students’ anticipated feelings of belonging in the particular majors.
Each question was assessed on an eight-point scale ranging from 0 (not
at all) to 7 (extremely). These questions read: “How much do you antici-
pate feeling like you belong as a student in [Education] courses at this school?”;
“How comfortable do you think you might feel as a student in [Education] courses
at this school?”; and “How much do you feel like you could ‘be yourself’ during
[Education] courses at this school?”
Willingness to Major
Students’ willingness to consider the majors were assessed with the item:
“How likely are you to consider majoring in [Education] at this school?” Students
responded using an eight-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all likely) to
7 (extremely likely).

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12
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
ANALYTIC STRATEGY
Throughout the analyses in this study, the responses of White students
are compared to the responses of African American, Latino/a and Asian
American students. This analytic strategy is motivated by stereotype threat
theory (e.g., Steele et al., 2002) and allows us to compare the experiences
of non-stigmatized White students (who comprise the largest racial or eth-
nic group of the student body at this university) to more underrepresented
and stigmatized racial and ethnic minority students, whose group mem-
berships may make them less certain about their belonging in school than
their White, nonstigmatized peers (D. R. Johnson et al., 2007). Moreover,
separating the data for each racial or ethnic group presents several practi-
cal and theoretical challenges. Theoretically, it raises questions how about
how we should assess students’ statements about “who” is in the major (e.g.,
should we include perceptions about people from only the student’s own
racial or ethnic group—examining ingroup and outgroup distinctions very
narrowly—or should we include perceptions across stigmatized racial and
ethnic groupings, revealing the shared experience of stigma and belong-
ing uncertainty posited by stereotype threat theory?). Practically, separating
and reporting the data of African American, Latino/a, and Asian American
students would quickly become unwieldy, and it is empirically unneces-
sary given that the data in this study reveal that the experiences of African
American, Latino/a, and Asian American students hold together and sig-
nificantly differ from those of White students on this college campus.2 Thus,
going forward, the responses of White students are compared to the re-
sponses of African American, Latino/a, and Asian American students, who
we refer to, collectively, as “students of color.”
SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS
Students’ perceptions about how students of color were dispersed
throughout the majors was assessed by summing the percent “Latino/
Hispanic,” “African American/Black,” and “Asian/Asian American” that
students assigned to each major. Results revealed a significant interaction
between the majors and participants’ racial or ethnic group memberships
on students’ social representations, F(17, 1654) = 2.27, p < .001. White
students and students of color agreed on the majors they perceived to be
majority White and majority students of color; group differences emerged
only when the majors were perceived to have much racial variation (i.e.,
those majors perceived to fall between the “mostly White” and “mostly
students of color” majors).

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White students and students of color agreed that the majors with the
most students of color were two ethnic studies majors—African and African
American Studies and Latin American Studies. White students perceived that
79% of the students majoring in these two fields were students of color (21%
of majors were perceived to be White); students of color perceived that 74%
of students in these majors were students of color (26% of majors were per-
ceived to be White). The majors that were perceived to contain the fewest stu-
dents of color, according to the White participants, were Political Science and
Anthropology (perceived to be about 43% White), while participants of color
perceived that Political Science and Psychology had the greatest proportion
of White students (at about 51%). Taken together, the data show that even
though students’ representations of race across the 18 majors varied between
White students and students of color, there was consensus about which majors
were perceived to be “majority-White” and “majority-students of color.”
SENSE OF BELONGING
Belonging was regressed on students’ perceptions of the distribution
of race in the majors, the participants’ race (dummy coded; students of
color = 0, White students = 1), and the interaction of these two factors.
Students’ race and their perceptions of the distribution of race among
the majors significantly predicted students’ sense of belonging, b = .79,
t (1686) = 2.92, p < .001 and b = .007, t (1686) = 2.07, p < .05. These main
effects were qualified by the predicted race X social representations in-
teraction, b = -.01, t (1686) = -3.01, p < .001. This significant moderation
indicates that the relationship between students’ social representations
and their anticipated belonging differs between students of color and
White students. Decomposing this interaction by racial group, we find
that for White students, as more students of color were perceived to com-
prise the majors, their anticipated belonging in the majors significantly
decreased, b = -.007, t (788) = -2.21, p < .05. Students of color showed the
opposite pattern: the more that students perceived that the majors were
comprised of students of color, the more they anticipated belonging in
these fields, b = .007, t (898) = 2.06, p < .05.
MODERATED MEDIATION ANALYSIS
We expected that students’ anticipated feelings of belonging would ac-
count for the relationship between their social representations and their
willingness to consider majoring in the various academic fields. That is,
we hypothesized that students’ social representations of different majors
should influence their anticipated belonging, which should in turn, influ-
ence their willingness to major in those academic disciplines.

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14
To examine whether White students and students of color’s anticipated
sense of belonging depended on whether they perceived their own group
to be represented in the major, we investigated whether students’ race
moderated the relationship between social representations and belonging
(path “d” in Figure 1). As reported above, this moderation should be sig-
nificant such that the more one’s own racial group was perceived to com-
prise the majors, the more students should anticipate belonging there.
Also, because some research has documented divergent effects of feel-
ings of belonging on downstream outcomes for White students and under-
represented students of color (Walton & Cohen, 2007; Zirkel, 2004), we
examined whether the link between anticipated belonging and willingness
to consider majoring might also differ between these groups (path “e” in
Figure 1). This analysis allows us to examine whether there are differences
between White students and students of color in the relationship between
their anticipated belonging and their willingness to consider majoring in
an academic discipline. That is, do anticipating feelings of belonging in an
academic discipline matter for some groups more than others?
To this aim, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis using multi-
ple regression and the recommended bootstrapping procedure described
by Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (2007; SPSS macro: MODMED; Model 5).
This analysis used 5,000 bootstrap resamples and a bias-corrected 95% con-
fidence interval at each level of the moderator and is reported as Preacher
et al. (2007) recommend. More specifically, we tested whether anticipated
belonging would mediate the relationship between students’ social repre-
sentations and their willingness to consider majoring in a field. Students’
racial group membership (dummy-coded; 0 = students of color and 1 =
White students) was included as a moderator of both the path from social
representations to anticipated belonging (path “d” in Figure 1) and the
path from anticipated belonging to willingness to consider the academic
majors (path “e” in Figure 1).
The results of these analyses are found in Table 1. The first regression
examined the effects of the mediator (anticipated belonging) on the pre-
dictor (social representations) and the moderator (students’ race). As
reported above, social representations were positively associated with an-
ticipated belonging and this relationship was moderated by students’ race
such that the more one’s group was perceived to comprise a major, the
more one anticipated belonging there.

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Table 1. Anticipated Belonging Mediates and Race Moderates the Effect
of Social Representations on Students’ Willingness to Consider Majoring
in a Discipline
Predictor b se t p
Anticipated Belonging (Mediator Variable Model)
Constant 2.382 0.193 12.36 0.00
Social Representations 0.007 0.004 2.07 0.03
Participant Race 0.794 0.272 2.92 0.00
Social Representations X
Participant Race -0.014 0.005 -3.01 0.00
Willingness to Consider Major (Dependent Variable Model)
Constant -0.306 0.164 -1.87 0.06
Social Representations 0.001 0.002 0.34 0.73
Social Representations X
Participant Race -0.001 0.004 -0.14 0.89
Anticipated Belonging 0.727 0.026 27.82 0.00
Participant Race -0.052 0.241 -0.22 0.83
Anticipated Belonging X
Participant Race -0.104 0.038 -2.70 0.01
Notes: N = 1690. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported.
Bootstrap sample size = 5,000.
The second analysis regressed the outcome variable (i.e., willingness to
consider majoring) on the predictor variable, moderator, and mediator.
Results revealed that anticipated belonging was positively related to stu-
dents’ willingness to consider the majors (b = .73, t (1686) = 27.82, p <
.001) and that the interaction between participants’ race and their antici-
pated belonging significantly predicted their willingness to consider the
majors (b = -.01, t (1686)= -2.70, p = .01).
Though these results support a moderated mediation hypothesis, they
do not tell us how this effect differed for White students and students of
color. To examine this question, we used the MODPROBE macro pro-
vided by Hayes and Matthes (2009) to examine the mediational effect
of anticipated belonging on students’ willingness to major at the two
dummy-coded values of the moderator (i.e., for White students and for
students of color). This conditional effect was significant for students
of color (b = 0.72, p < .001, CI: .6762, .7783), and for White students (b
= 0.62, p < .001, CI: .5671, .6773). Thus, the data suggest that when all
students perceive that their racial group is represented in a major, they

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16
anticipate a greater sense of belonging there, and they are more willing
to consider majoring in that academic field. Consistent with previous
research, the effect is larger for students of color than for White stu-
dents. This suggests that these linkages might be somewhat stronger for
students of color than for White students, though it is clearly important
for both groups.
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
Study 1 demonstrates that students have social representations about how
race is distributed throughout academic majors. All groups (i.e., White
students and students of color) were affected by these social representa-
tions of race when considering future academic choices. In particular, the
more people perceived their group to comprise a major, the more an-
ticipated belonging they experienced. Consistent with past work, sense of
belonging had somewhat stronger effects for students of color compared
to White students. However, anticipated belonging is an important fac-
tor for both groups when they consider which fields they would consider
studying in college.
Study 1 employed an experimental, quantitative approach to examine
the relationship between anticipated belonging and academic outcomes
among stigmatized and nonstigmatized students. There, we found that
students’ social representations of race in academic disciplines were a
significant predictor of student belonging for both White students and
students of color. Moreover, students’ belonging significantly predicted
their interest in those college majors. Studies 2 and 3 build upon and
extend Study 1 by exploring how students’ actual (not anticipated) be-
longing in school affects their academic outcomes beyond interest in ac-
ademic disciplines (including their goals, aspirations, and performance
in school). Moreover, these studies involve different samples of students
and academic contexts. Specifically, Study 2 examines whether feelings
of belonging in school predict the educational goals that junior high
school students set for themselves and their sense of efficacy in meeting
those goals at a middle school comprised mostly of African American
students. Study 3 employs a longitudinal design to investigate whether
students’ feelings of belonging in their first months in college predict
their later academic performance.
Following our conceptual framework, we examined whether sense of
belonging would be equally predictive of downstream outcomes for stig-
matized students of color and White students (as in Study 1 when students
report their anticipated sense of belonging in school). That is, Studies 2
and 3 explore whether students’ actual belonging in school is linked to

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downstream educational outcomes for all students, or, as suggested by
stereotype threat theory, mainly for students from stigmatized racial and
ethnic groups. As students move from predicting their future sense of be-
longing in school, to reporting what their actual sense of belonging is
once enrolled in school, belonging may become more predictive of down-
stream academic outcomes for these students than for nonstigmatized
White students.
STUDY 2
Study 1 suggests that feelings of belonging can have considerable conse-
quences for students’ future goals and choices. In Study 2, we wanted to
explore whether the effects of belonging can be observed in a younger
population that is perhaps setting even more consequential educational
goals and plans as they decide whether they will pursue higher education
at all. Study 1 revealed that anticipated belonging matters to all students,
though the data suggest that it might matter more for stigmatized students
of color, as this group contends with persistent stereotypes about their be-
longing in academic contexts, than for White students. Might students’ ac-
tual feelings of belonging have a different impact on academic outcomes?
Finally, in Study 1, these issues were explored in a context in which stu-
dents of color formed a minority of the student population. School seg-
regation data suggest that many younger students attend schools that are
far more racially isolated and segregated. That is, many African American
or Latino/a students are enrolled in schools in which they form a large
majority of the student body. Do students’ feelings of belonging matter in
these contexts?
In Study 2, we utilize data from a large middle school sample in a pre-
dominantly African American and economically diverse county in the
Northeast to investigate three theoretically important questions about
the downstream consequences of feelings of belonging in school. Do
feelings of belonging in school among young adolescents influence their
educational aspirations and their own assessments of their likelihood of
achieving those ambitions? Is the impact of feelings of belonging in mid-
dle school on these goals and ambitions different for White students and
for students of color? And finally, do we see the impact of feelings of be-
longing among a group of African American students in predominantly
African American schools?

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18
METHOD
Data for this study are taken from a larger study of adolescent develop-
ment. The dataset is made publicly available by the original Principal
Investigator through the Henry A. Murray Research Center at Harvard
University (Eccles, 1997) after researchers pledge to abide by all relevant
ethical guidelines for research with human participants. All identifying stu-
dent information was removed before we gained access to the data. Data
were collected in accordance with the ethical principles of the American
Psychological Association. All participants and their parents gave their full
informed consent to participate in the study and to have their data used
for research. Human subjects approval was granted by the PI’s university
and the relevant officials from the participants’ schools.
Although the larger dataset is longitudinal in design, the measures rel-
evant to the present research questions were not collected in later waves
of data. Thus, we will examine data from the first year of the larger study,
when students were in the seventh grade.
SETTING
The setting of this study is Prince George’s County, a predominantly
African American, largely middle-class county near Washington, DC. The
sample population reflects this broader context (approximately two-thirds
of the sample is African American, one-third White).
PARTICIPANTS
The sample for this study consisted of 1,377 seventh grade students (918
African American; 459 White; 51% female, 49% male). The original sam-
ple from which the data are drawn consisted of 1,482 seventh grade stu-
dents (918 African American students; 459 White students; 19 Latino/a
students, 32 Asian American students, 8 Pacific Islander students, and 8
Native American students). Unfortunately, the relatively small numbers of
Latino/a, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native American students,
relative to the numbers of African American and White students, meant
that statistical analyses could not provide appropriate comparisons of
these groups’ experiences due to the dramatically different sample sizes.
Thus, our analyses focused on comparisons of the African American and
White students only.
Participants were recruited by schools across the county, and, as seventh
graders, they were typically 12 or 13 years old at the time of data collec-
tion. Participants broadly represent urban, suburban, and rural areas of
the state, and include a broad range of economic situations.

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MEASURES
Measures were included in the original dataset to assess students’ feelings
of belonging in school, students’ educational goals, and educational effi-
cacy. These measures were used to explore the present research questions.
Belonging
Whereas Study 1 examined students’ anticipated sense of belonging in
various academic disciplines, this study focused on students’ actual sense
of belonging with their peers in school. Students’ belonging with school
peers was measured by two items (α = .70): “It’s easy to make friends at this
school” and “I feel as if I really belong at this school” (1 = strongly disagree; 5 =
strongly agree).
Educational Goals and Efficacy
Educational goals and efficacy were measured by two questions developed
by Stevens, Puchtell, Ryu, and Mortimer (1992). The item “How far would
you like to go in school?” assessed students’ educational goals. The item “Not
everyone gets to go as far in school as they would like. How far do you think you
will actually go in school?” measured students’ perceived educational efficacy.
Students responded to both items on a nine-point scale, with higher num-
bers reflecting higher levels of schooling (i.e., 1 = 8th grade or less; 2 = 9th–
11th grade, etc.) and perceived educational efficacy.
RESULTS
We examined the relationships between students’ feelings of belonging and
their educational goals and efficacy. We began by looking for group differ-
ences in our core variables to assess the general pattern of belonging, edu-
cational goals, and efficacy between groups. African American and White
students in the sample reported nearly identical levels of (high) educa-
tional aspirations (White students: M = 7.57, SD = 1.47; African American
students: M = 7.67, SD = 1.59, t(1378) < 1.3, ns; these average responses
reflect goals of attaining a master’s degree, teaching credential, or other
professional degree). The students also reported similar levels of educa-
tional efficacy (White students: M = 6.89, SD = 1.54; African American stu-
dents: M = 6.77, SD = 1.78, t(1371) < 1.3, ns; these responses reflect expec-
tations of graduating from a two- or four-year college). African American
students, who constituted a majority of the student body, felt significantly
greater belonging than did White students, though the variability in stu-
dents’ feelings of belonging was similar within groups (M = 3.64, SD = .83

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and M = 3.36, SD = .87, respectively; t (1478) = 5.60, p < .001). This find-
ing replicates others conducted in schools where racial minority students
comprise the majority of the student body (e.g., Griffith, 1999). Next, we
examined whether feelings of belonging related to students’ educational
efficacy and goals differently for African American and White students.
Students’ reports of their educational goals and efficacy were regressed
against the belonging composite to assess the extent to which belong-
ing was associated with a greater commitment to remain in educational
institutions for a longer period of time. Among African American stu-
dents, greater levels of belonging was associated with higher educational
goals and higher levels of educational efficacy (see Table 1) (African
Americans: Educational Goals, b = .28, t(916)= 3.50 p < .001; Educational
Efficacy, b = .29, t(916) = 3.20, p < .001). In contrast, among White stu-
dents, there was no relationship between belonging and educational
goals or educational efficacy (White students: Educational Goals: b = .11,
t(457) = 1.13, ns; Educational Efficacy: b = .11, t(457) =1.01, ns)3.
Table 2. Middle School Students’ Feelings of Belonging and Educational
Aspirations
Educational Goals Regressed on Feelings of Belonging at School:
African American
Students
n = 913
White
Students
n = 459
b t p < b t p
How far would you like to go in school? .28 3.50 .001 .11 1.13 ns
How far are you likely to go in school? .29 3.20 .001 .11 1.01 ns
DISCUSSION
These data are consistent with prior studies demonstrating that peer
friendships in racially diverse schools affect middle school students’ en-
gagement and enjoyment of school (Zirkel, 2004). They are also consis-
tent with stereotype threat theory, which suggests that students’ actual
experiences of belonging in school may be particularly important for
students of color as their racial group is intellectually stereotyped in
American society. Here we see that when African American middle school
children feel they belong with peers at school, they set higher educational
goals for themselves and experience more educational efficacy to reach
those goals. These same relationships are not found among White middle
school children who may not have the same level of belonging uncertainty
in educational environments because they are not stigmatized by similar

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21
intellectual stereotypes. Building on earlier work by Zirkel (2004), this
research is one of the first studies to extend previous findings that illu-
minated the importance of peer friendships to school engagement in a
predominantly African American, middle class academic context. African
American students still benefited from feelings of belonging with peers
even when their group comprised a majority of the student body.
Why might belonging have such a strong effect for African American
students, even in contexts where they form the majority? We expect that
there are at least two dimensions to the construct of experienced belonging
in school; and we expect that when students are asked about whether they
feel like they “belong,” both dimensions are activated and referenced in
their statements. One aspect entails feeling socially connected and “a part”
of the school environment—in other words, students report their feelings
of belonging in this particular school setting. This aspect of belonging may be
less problematic in a school environment where one is a part of the major-
ity racial or ethnic group, such as here, in this particular school context.
However, another dimension of belonging refers more broadly to a sense
of belonging in “school”—that is, school as an institution, writ large. This
aspect refers not to a specific school, but to the entire academic enterprise
and schools more generally. We expect that this dimension of belonging is
less dependent on whether the immediate environment reflects a majority
of peers sharing the same racial or ethnic makeup in the setting. Instead,
this dimension turns on the climate of the school and the way that “school,”
as an institution, is organized—students consider whether the institution
of school makes them feel like they, and others like them, can grow, gradu-
ate, and bridge to college, as well as whether people like them have a cen-
tral place in the curriculum and in the organization and running of the
school. Are people like them well-represented among the adults in this set-
ting (teachers, principal(s), parent leadership)? Are they made to feel that
they and students like them have strong academic potential? Are they en-
couraged to think that they are “college material”—that higher academic
aspirations are something they should be thinking about and planning for?
In other words, when students think about schools, are they places for me
and my group, or rather, are schools for “someone else?” As Stacy Lee (2005)
and Noguera and Wing (2006) both eloquently describe, a school can be
“college preparatory” and still not be “college preparatory for me”—schools
are raced and classed in ways that often make clear to students and fami-
lies who they are “for.” This kind of belonging is an essential component
of students’ feelings of belonging in school and might explain why previ-
ous studies have found that White students tend to report more belonging
in school than racial and ethnic minorities (e.g., Osterman, 2000), why
African American students remain relatively uncertain about their group’s

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22
“fit” with school, and why these students’ sense of belonging is predictive
of their educational goals and efficacy more so than among White students
even in predominantly African American schools.
This study adds to our understanding of the complexity of the relation-
ships between students’ belonging at school and their educational aspira-
tions and efficacy. In particular, we see that although in Study 1, students’
anticipated sense of belonging influenced both White students’ and students’
of color academic interests, the experienced sense of belonging we investi-
gate in Study 2 had a stronger effect on the academic outcomes of students
of color. Of course, because students’ sense of belonging and their educa-
tional efficacy and aspirations were all measured in the seventh grade, there
are limitations to how much we can infer about the causal relationships
between these factors. In Study 3, we have a better opportunity to assess the
relationships between students’ academic belonging and their subsequent
academic performance due to the timing and longitudinal research design.
STUDY 3
In Study 3, we return to a college setting and utilize data from a longitudinal
study of college students to examine how students’ feelings of belonging
on campus are related to their subsequent academic performance. In prior
studies, we did not have access to students’ academic records in order to ex-
amine whether belonging has a measurable relationship with performance
over time. In Study 3, we explore this question and again examine whether
the pattern is the same for both White students and underrepresented stu-
dents of color. Building on Study 2, we hypothesize that there will be a re-
lationship between students’ feelings of belonging early in their college ex-
perience and their later academic performance—but that this relationship
will appear only for students from underrepresented racial minority groups.
METHODS
SETTING AND CONTEXT OF DATA COLLECTION
Data for this study were drawn from a longitudinal survey of students at a
large mid-western state university. A different university from that report-
ed in Study 1, this is a predominantly White “flagship” university located
in a college town. The student body at this university is moderately racially
and economically diverse. Although attempts have been made to ensure
that the full racial and economic diversity of the state is represented in the
student body, these efforts have had only partial success, and consequently
the student body from which this sample was drawn is disproportionately
White and middle class.

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The study from which these data were drawn was focused on students’
engagement in college and their extracurricular activities and well-being.
Students were recruited to participate during the summer before ma-
triculation. The primary focus of the study was students’ experiences of
college life viewed through the lens of their engagement in extracur-
ricular group activities. For the purposes of the present study, we were
interested in how students’ engagement with, and the depth of their
connection to, peers early in their college experience shaped their later
academic performance in college. Although all three studies examine
the effects of belonging derived from perceptions of, and relationships
with, peers in the academic environment, the dataset used in this study
allowed us to go beyond the two reported above to examine how stu-
dents’ connections with peers early in the first year of college relates to
academic outcomes at the end of that year.
PARTICIPANTS
The researchers recruited a random sample of 10% of two successive un-
dergraduate classes at the university and surveyed them about their ex-
periences on campus in the beginning of their first year of college and
at the end of their second semester. A total of 452 students (243 women,
199 men) participated in the two surveys, and approximately three-fourths
of them agreed to provide access to their academic records. The present
study included the 357 students who completed both surveys and who
granted permission to access their official academic transcripts (i.e., all
students whose had complete data). This final sample reflected the ra-
cial and ethnic make-up of the predominantly White university, and in-
cluded 315 White students and 42 underrepresented students of color (25
African American, 15 Latino/a, and 2 Native American students). The
relatively small numbers of students of color in this sample meant that
statistical analyses required that we collapse across identifications for ra-
cial and ethnic minority students. While ideally we would examine the
experience of each racial and ethnic minority group, collapsing across
groups that are negatively stereotyped allows an examination of ques-
tions that emerge from our theoretical framework on the role of stigma
and negative stereotyping in educational contexts. Students participated
in the study voluntarily and in accord with the ethical guidelines of the
American Psychological Association. Full informed consent was secured
from all study participants, and the research was approved by the Human
Subjects Committee of the university.

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24
MEASURES
As in the previous study, these data were collected by other researchers for
purposes that were aligned with, but not identical to, our own. The data
we received contained no student identifying information (Kemmelmeier,
2013). The survey was focused primarily on students’ participation in orga-
nized extracurricular activities, and the relationship between their extra-
curricular activities and the rest of their college experience. Students were
asked about their extracurricular involvement, relationships with peers,
and overall well-being. Finally, using official campus records, students’ col-
lege admission test scores (SAT) and college grades were collected.
Belonging
In this study, we operationalized experiences of belonging in a different
way, given the available data. The longitudinal study included extensive
data on students’ relationships and engagement with school peers. Much
of the focus of the original study was on students’ participation in extra-
curricular activities, in part because previous work demonstrates that ex-
tracurricular activities play a central role in students’ experiences of con-
nection and belonging at school (Astin, 1997; Chavous, 2000; Guiffrida,
2003; Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005). Given this research, we conceptu-
alized students’ experiences of belonging as the extent to which their peer
relationships at school played a central role in their daily lives.
Students reported on all extracurricular activities that they participated
in. They were then asked to select the extracurricular activity that they
identified as “most important to your college experience.” Next, in a series of
four questions, students reported the extent to which they spent time with
other students from that extracurricular organization outside of its official
activities—in outside activities such as studying, socializing, sharing meals,
and “just hanging out” with group members (e.g., How often during a typi-
cal week do you eat with other students who participate in [your most important
extracurricular activity]?). Students responded using a four-point scale (1 =
never, 4 = always). This measure revealed the degree to which friendships
formed in extracurricular groups were deeply embedded in their daily
lives. A belonging score was created by averaging across all four items (ć =
.87). This score served as our measure of students’ experiences of belong-
ing with peers on campus.
Academic Performance
Students’ SAT scores and college academic performance were assessed
directly from university records with students’ permission.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Our main focus was to examine whether students’ sense of belonging at
college was related to their subsequent academic performance. Consistent
with stereotype threat theory, we expected that belonging with peers would
be significantly related to subsequent academic performance, particu-
larly among students of color (whose groups are negatively stereotyped
in academic domains). For these students, feeling connected to peers at
school and creating meaningful relationships with them should mitigate
stereotype threat concerns and buffer against stereotype threat underper-
formance in school (Steele et al., 2002). While belonging in school is im-
portant for the social development of White students (Goodenow, 1993;
Goodenow & Grady, 1993), it may not be as crucial for their academic
performance as it is for students of color who contend with group-based
stereotypes about belonging and intelligence at school.
First, we examined students’ overall feelings of belonging to explore
group differences in average levels of connection with peers. Although
White students reported slightly higher levels of belonging than did stu-
dents of color, this difference was not significant; again the variability with-
in and between groups was similar (White students: M = 2.54, SD = .77,
students of color: M = 2.40, SD = .73, F (1, 388) = 1.85, ns).
Next, we explored whether these feelings of connection and belong-
ing with peers were related to later academic performance by separately
regressing participants’ first and second semester GPAs on students’ be-
longing while controlling for their college admission test scores (SAT).
Here, the data revealed the pattern predicted by stereotype threat theory.
Specifically, students’ sense of belonging measured in the first semester of
college showed no relationship to first semester college grades for either
White students or students of color (B’s < .08, ns, see Table 3). However,
students’ belonging in their first weeks of college showed a strong and
positive relationship to second semester grades for students of color, but
not for White students (students of color, B = .26, p < .01; White students,
B = .05, ns; see Table 3). These data suggest that, for students of color,
experiences of belonging very early in their time on campus are related
to their academic performance as it unfolds over the course of the entire
academic year. These findings suggest that although belonging may not
buffer the academic performance of students of color immediately, those
early experiences of belonging in college have longer term implications
for their academic engagement and performance. Thus, early connec-
tions seem particularly important for students of color as they are related
to their downstream academic performance.

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Table 3. Experienced Belonging and Academic Performance Among
Students of Color and White Students
Academic Grades Regressed on Time Spent with Extracurricular Friends in First Weeks
of College, Controlling for College Admission Test Scores (SAT):
Students of Color
n = 44
White Students
n = 315
B SE t p < B SE t p
Fall GPA (First year of college) -.05 .13 < 1 ns .08 .06 1.29 ns
Spring GPA (First year of college) .26 .12 2.16 .01 .05 .05 1.04 ns
These findings extend our analysis of the relationship between belong-
ing and academic outcomes in at least three ways. First, by showing that
experiences of belonging in school are related to the long-term academic
outcomes of college students of color, this study extends Study 2, pro-
viding initial evidence that the relationship between belonging and aca-
demic outcomes continues beyond early adolescence. Second, the present
study brings into focus the ways in which peer relationships matter. In
this study, the measure of belonging reflects the extent to which students
create strong relationships on campus. Here, it refers literally to the ex-
tent to which their relationships with peers in a formal group on campus
(athletics, band, clubs) are also reflected in their daily lives. As stereotype
threat theory suggests, students of color have a different set of concerns
than White students. They are concerned about being stereotyped, not
“fitting” the educational environment, and not being included in impor-
tant networks and opportunities (Murphy & Taylor, 2011); these concerns
interfere with academic performance (Schmader et al., 2008; Steele &
Aronson, 1995; Steele et al., 2002). Having connections with peers at
school may help alleviate some of these concerns which may, in turn,
forestall academic underperformance among students of color. Because
White students do not contend with the same concerns, stereotype theory
predicts and these data confirm that belonging is not linked to academic
performance in the same way for these students. Future research should
examine how experiences of belonging with peers influence other impor-
tant outcomes for White students such as their social development and
self-confidence in school.
Finally, the study supports the view that, for racial and ethnic minority
students, social connection early in an academic environment improves
academic outcomes. The study design allowed examination of the aca-
demic correlates of college friendships formed early in students’ first year

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of college. We found that the extent to which underrepresented students
are more fully integrated into the social world of college early in their col-
lege career presages the development of stronger academic performance
over time. In this study, we examined the relationship between those early
friendships and later academic performance, while controlling for college
admission test scores (SAT). Thus, the relationship between school friend-
ships and academic performance is not merely the result of the more aca-
demically successful students of color developing more friends. Rather,
the data highlight that friendships and belonging contribute to academic
success over time. Here, the time series data and research design supports
the interpretation that the social connection and feelings of belonging
lead to greater academic performance at the end of the first year in col-
lege, rather than the other way around.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Across three studies, we show how anticipated belonging as well as experienced
belonging affect educational outcomes differently for White students and stu-
dents from stigmatized racial and ethnic minority groups. Consistent with
previous research, a sense of belonging matters for all students when they
are anticipating how they think they will feel in a given educational context.
In such cases, who students anticipate encountering in the environment—
and whether those people are from their own social group—influences
students’ anticipated sense of belonging. This anticipated belonging, in
turn, influences all students’ preferences for academic majors but it has
the most pronounced effect for stigmatized students of color. Studies 2 and
3 explore the impact of students’ actual feelings of belonging and connec-
tion with peers in specific academic contexts. Here, we find that the impact
of students’ connections with peers and feelings of belonging in school
shapes educational outcomes only for students of color. In Study 2 we see
that a positive relationship between feelings of belonging and educational
goals and aspirations emerges only for African American students—and
this in a predominantly African American student body. In Study 3 we see
the same pattern: connections with peers early in students’ college life are
associated with positive academic outcomes only for students of color, not
for White students. Taken together, then, we see that when making future-
oriented educational choices, anticipating a sense of belonging matters for
all students. However, when students are already embedded in an particu-
lar academic environment, one’s actual sense of belonging and connection
with peers seems particularly important for stigmatized students (in this
case, students of color), as it helps alleviate some of the threat conferred by
their stigmatized status in educational settings writ large.

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28
BELONGING AND IDENTITY
Why is it that sometimes feelings of belonging influence the behavior and
outcomes of White students and sometimes they do not? Surely White stu-
dents in school also worry about whether they will fit in socially. Indeed,
this is the pattern we observe in our first study. There, White students
anticipated less belonging in settings in which they expected to find more
racial and ethnic minority students and this anticipated belonging influ-
enced their interest in certain college majors. However, when we look at
the academic impact of students’ actual feelings of belonging in their cur-
rent educational contexts, we see the influence of belonging holds only
for stigmatized students of color.
We believe this pattern of findings can be explained by social identity
threat and group differences in students’ belonging uncertainty in educa-
tional settings (Walton & Cohen, 2007, 2011). As alluded to above, much
research suggests that educational settings themselves are “raced.” That is,
students, and even some teachers, associate the institution of education—
and especially higher education—as a “White” enterprise (e.g., Carter,
2005; Gillborn, 2008; Lee, 2005; Leonardo, 2010; Lewis, 2003; Noguera
& Wing, 2006). Consequently, there is an implied degree of belonging
for White students in educational settings: White students are presumed
to “fit” in school and university settings, and so they don’t share the same
group level concerns about whether they “belong” as do racial and ethnic
minority students whose groups are seen as “outsiders” to the academic
enterprise. Even in academic settings in which students of color make up
a majority of the student body, because the institution of education is raced
in ways that favor White students, experiences of belonging may be more
informative and diagnostic of their standing in school for students of col-
or than for White students (Schwarz et al., 1991).
That is, because people of color are not seen to automatically “fit” with
educational settings, and because these groups are often the targets
of negative stereotypes that impugn their intellectual abilities (Steele,
1997, 2011), feelings of “fit” and belonging might be more meaningful
or informative for these groups (Schwarz et al., 1991). Stigmatized stu-
dents of color might use their feelings of belonging to guide them to
places within academic settings that suggest identity safety, rather than
threat (Steele et al., 2002). That is, feelings of belonging might inform
the entire academic experience for stigmatized students of color. If
this were the case, we would expect that the academic choices, goals,
efficacy, and even the performance of these students would be linked
to their feelings of belonging in school. This is exactly the pattern that
we observe.

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Previous studies of the impact of belonging on students’ experiences tend
to involve either qualitative studies of the experiences of particular groups of
students in specific academic settings (e.g., Benmayor, 2002; Read, Archer,
& Leathwood, 2003; Villalpando, 2003; Wilcox, Winn, & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005)
or larger quantitative studies of how belonging shapes all students’ experi-
ences without more nuanced, theoretically driven hypotheses about how
belonging may differ between groups of students (Freeman, Anderman, &
Jensen, 2007; Hausman, Schofield, & Woods, 2007; Pittman & Richmond,
2007, 2008). Important work, by Hurtado and others, exploring how racial
climates on college campuses shape students’ sense of belonging are an im-
portant exception (e.g., Hurtado & Carter, 1997; D. R. Johnson et al., 2007).
Here, we extend previous work by exploring the downstream consequences
of feelings of belonging for students in a wide variety of educational set-
tings. We employ quantitative experimental and longitudinal research de-
signs to further our theoretical understanding of how, when, and for whom
belonging matters most. In these studies, we see that “sense of belonging”—
measured in multiple ways that index students’ relationships with others—is
a construct that influences young people as they make choices and decide
where to invest their time and energy. These studies remind us that as stu-
dents make important life choices, the social context of those choices looms
large. These studies indicate that questions such as “Who will I be spending
my time with if I choose to pursue higher education, this college, this major,
or this profession?” seem to play an active, and perhaps central role in the
choices young people make about which goals to pursue. Most importantly,
we see that concerns about belonging and fitting in—although universal—
are especially powerful and poignant for students from negatively stereo-
typed racial and ethnic minority groups.
Theories of the role that “belonging” plays in the lives of students of
color often focus on the ways that institutions are or are not as welcom-
ing and supportive of them as they are for White students (e.g., Hurtado
& Carter, 1997). These are indeed important concerns for academic in-
stitutions to address. The findings of the present studies suggest that
not attending to such climate questions may have especially grave conse-
quences as concerns about belonging and “fitting in” are drawn from a
feeling of inclusion with others (e.g., peers in a major, peers and friends
at school). These social experiences of schools are especially salient and
particularly influential for stigmatized students of color. Moreover, con-
cerns about belonging seem to be tied to “academic institutions” as a
whole, and extend beyond the precise racial and ethnic make-up of the
institution in question; thus including racial and ethnic minorities in
our notions of who school is “for” at a broader socio-cultural level seems
particularly important.

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30
RECURSIVE NATURE OF BELONGING, ACADEMIC CHOICES, AND
ACADEMIC COMMITMENT
The present work also reminds us that students’ choices and commit-
ments are ongoing and recursive. Commitment to the pursuit of higher
education, choosing a college, choosing a major, and one’s level of en-
gagement in any given educational institution is not static. Instead, these
choices are often made and reconsidered as time progresses. Although
anticipated feelings of belonging shape the choices and decision-making
processes when exploring future options and interests, students may re-
visit their decision again once they have embarked on their educational
path. Once in a school or major, actual feelings of belonging influence on-
going decisions about how much energy to invest in academic pursuits, as
observed in Studies 2 and 3. Moreover, experienced belonging will likely
shape decisions about whether to stay in a particular college, whether to
transfer to another school, or whether to persist in a major. In Studies 2
and 3, we see that students’ ongoing commitment to education more gen-
erally, and their effort in academic work in particular, is strongly related to
their self-reported feelings of belonging in school (Study 2) as well as the
extent to which they describe themselves as solidly integrated into a peer
community during their first months of college (Study 3). Although none
of these studies individually can “capture” the nuanced, and indeed cycli-
cal, nature of the questions students ask again and again about belong-
ing (“Will I fit in here? Or there?”; “Do I fit in here? How do I know?”),
together these studies highlight that questions of belonging are persistent
ones that influence students at many different times throughout their aca-
demic career.
LIMITATIONS
The data we present here capture only parts of the story of students’ aca-
demic choices, commitments, and engagements. As quantitative data,
they offer snapshots of students’ experiences; they allow us insight into
students’ decision-making processes but cannot reveal all the complexities
and nuances involved. Nor do they enable students to provide in-depth
personal accounts of the meaning of belonging in their academic experi-
ences (such as in Nichols, 2006, 2008, which included a mix of interview
and survey data). However, what these data can provide is a demonstration
of the pervasiveness and consistency of these patterns across large num-
bers of participants and within a number of different contexts. Moreover,
the large numbers of participants afforded by quantitative data collection
methods enables us to demonstrate that the experiences identified by

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31
more qualitative studies of belonging among smaller numbers of partici-
pants in very specific educational contexts (e.g., Nichols, 2008) are actu-
ally widespread experiences shared by many. This approach enables us to
explore the complexity of the meaning of a concept such as belonging
and to observe its impact on stigmatized racial and ethnic minority stu-
dents as they set goals for future educational endeavors, such as college,
that may be coded as “White” in their imagination.
The data we present in Studies 2 and 3 offer limited opportunities to
make clear causal inferences about the impact of belonging on students’
goals, plans, and outcomes. Our data enable us to use time (in the case of
the longitudinal study) and statistical analyses to reveal the relationships
between factors theorized to be causally related. However, as Studies 2
and 3 do not include experimental data in which we manipulate levels of
belonging and then measure its impact, we cannot make definitive causal
claims from them. We argue that the benefits of studying these concepts
“in the field” and the external validity accompanying such methods out-
weigh these limitations, and highlight the consistency of the data across
contexts and student populations to support our conclusions. However,
future experimental studies will be necessary to definitively draw the caus-
al conclusion that belonging shapes goals and outcomes.
Finally, the conceptualization of belonging that we used throughout
these studies is centered on peer relationships. This makes sense, because
peer relationships form a core aspect of students’ experience of belonging
in a variety of educational settings (e.g., Osterman, 2000; Wentzel, 1998).
However, other aspects of students’ feelings of belonging, might center on
other factors, including relationships with faculty and staff, or cognitive as-
sessments of the compatibility of an organization’s values and ideals with
their own (e.g., Anderman & Freeman, 2004; Osterman, 2000; Wentzel,
1998). These are interesting and exciting areas for future research into
the ways that feelings of belonging are developed and the influence they
have on students’ experiences.
IMPLICATIONS
Throughout these studies, we see that, although belonging is important
to everyone in academic settings, belonging has a particularly powerful
influence on the academic interests, plans, goals, and performance of stu-
dents of color. For this reason, belonging is an important construct in
considering how to develop and reshape schools to better serve students
of color. Schools and colleges can do a great deal to foster a sense of be-
longing in classrooms, schools, colleges, and disciplines. Facilitating the
development of peer relationships in school that are centered on both

Teachers College Record, 117, 120304 (2015)
32
school and extracurricular activities will foster students’ sense of connec-
tion and belonging. Also important is our finding that concerns about
belonging seem to shape the educational goals and commitments of
African American middle school students in schools in which African
American students form a large majority. This suggests that these are
issues to which all schools would do well to attend, not just those in pre-
dominantly White communities.
Although we saw that all students carry representations of the racial de-
mographics of particular college majors, it is possible that these represen-
tations may be particularly damaging for stigmatized students of color,
in part because the representations of prestigious and lucrative fields
(such as science and math) are overwhelmingly White. Efforts to change
those social representations—including the availability of race-matched
role models (Zirkel, 2002), mentoring programs, identity-based clubs
and organizations (e.g., Black Student Union; Black Engineering Student
Societies)—might help as they may shift social representations of those
fields and ease students’ belonging concerns. It is important to remem-
ber that the effects of these social representations on students’ intentions
to major in different fields are mediated by feelings of belonging. Thus,
interventions that focus directly on belonging, such as the one used by
Walton and Cohen (2007, 2011) may be particularly effective in shaping
student outcomes.
Within higher education, student services is the professional field in
which the cocurricular lives of students are carefully considered and en-
ergy is directed towards students’ total educational experiences—both
inside and outside the classroom. Considerations of belonging and con-
nection between students are often foremost among the considerations
of student well-being. What might the implications be if a similar level
of attention was devoted to students’ overall levels of belonging and con-
nection in K–12 settings? We argue that this could have a positive impact
on the academic outcomes of racial and ethnic minority students and we
would encourage schools to consider ways to actively create such a positive
climate for younger students of color.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Across three studies our data illuminate how, and for whom, anticipat-
ed and experienced belonging shapes academic outcomes. The choices
about where to invest one’s time and energy do not occur at a single point
in time—rather, they are decisions that people make over and over again.
For example, when we choose to pursue higher education, or a particular
major, and again when we decide whether to stay with the major or the

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33
college during challenging times, we invest our time and energy more
fully and with less ambivalence when we feel like we belong. Those feel-
ings of belonging are derived from our social representations of a set-
ting and the degree to which we see ourselves represented there. Feeling
one does not belong saps interest and motivation in a way that is likely to
hurt academic performance over time. We may not have conscious access
to the fact that these factors influence our choices—the question of how
consciously these concerns shape our decisions is an important one for
further study—but they nevertheless contribute to our decisions.
Secondly, we find that although feelings of belonging are important for
everyone in academic settings, they are especially important for stigma-
tized students of color. The very nature of stigma, prejudice, and discrimi-
nation suggests that feelings of belonging cannot be taken for granted
among members of negatively stereotyped groups. The studies we report
here are part of a growing body of research that supports this perspec-
tive. Becoming more conscious of students’ belonging concerns and be-
ing vigilant about how these concerns are addressed by institutions are an
essential component to creating schools, workplaces, and other settings
that support everyone (Zirkel, 2008). College administrators have long
realized that efforts to diversify the student body need to extend well be-
yond the admissions office. We believe that attention and efforts directed
at increasing the feelings of belonging among students of color are likely
to not only aid efforts to attract (and retain) larger numbers of minority
students, but they are also likely to improve the performance and persis-
tence of these students within educational institutions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Preparation of this article was supported by a Spencer Foundation
Exemplary Dissertation Award, a National Science Foundation Grant
(SMA-1032702) awarded to the first author, and a National Science
Foundation Grant (HRD-0936613) awarded to both authors.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Mary
C. Murphy, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana
University, 1101 E. 10th Street, Bloomington, IN 47405 (email: mcmpsych@
indiana.edu).

Teachers College Record, 117, 120304 (2015)
34
NOTES
1. The design of Study 1 required a trade-off. In order to have a complete mixed
model design, it would have been ideal to have all participants evaluate all 18
of the majors. However, pretesting revealed that participants fatigued after eval-
uating just half of the majors. Therefore, following other researchers that have
encountered this issue (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007; Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu,
2002), participants were randomly assigned to evaluate only a subset of the eigh-
teen majors in order to reduce fatigue, preserve the quality of the data, and mini-
mize order effects. Because these majors were randomly assigned to participants,
few participants evaluated the same majors and even fewer evaluated them in the
same order. Thus, the with-in subjects nature of the data could not be analyzed.
2. Analyses examining the effects of students’ perceptions of the number of
White students in the majors were also conducted. The results mirror those pre-
sented in Study 1, such that White students experienced more belonging and a
stronger willingness to consider a major when they expected White students to
comprise a larger percentage of students in a major. Students of color, across ra-
cial and ethnic groups, showed the opposite pattern such that the more White
students participants perceived to hold the major, the less belonging students of
color reported experiencing. The moderated mediational model held in the same
way when students’ perceptions of the number of White students served as the
predictor of belonging and willingness to consider the majors. These analyses, as
well as the perceived racial and ethnic representations of each major, are available
upon request but are not included here to reduce redundancy.
Additional analyses were conducted to empirically examine whether the re-
sponses of Asian American participants were more closely aligned with those of
White students or with those of African American and Latino/a students among
the university sample in Study 1. Analyses compared the responses of Asian
American students to White students and found significant differences in their
sense of belonging among the college majors perceived to contain more racial/
ethnic minorities (i.e., African American and Latino/a students) than White stu-
dents, b = .26, t (1168) = 2.34, p = .02. Asian American students felt more sense of
belonging in these majors relative to White students. A comparison of responses
from Asian American students to those of Black and Latino students revealed no
significant differences, b = .001, t (1046) = .007, p = n.s. In this sample, then, the
Asian American student responses most closely resembled those of other under-
represented racial and ethnic groups. This finding is consistent with stereotype
threat theory that has posited a solidarity or common experience of stigma and
underrepresentation among many racial and ethnic minority group members (K.
Johnson, 1997; D. R. Johnson et al., 2007; Steele et al., 2002).
3. We also ran the analyses using a self-report measure of the “grades I typically
got” in elementary school as a control, and it did not effect the results. We do not
include this measure because of the inherent problems of asking seventh graders
to report elementary school grades.

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APPENDIX
Alphabetical list of majors (Study 1)
African and African American Studies
Anthropology
Bioscience
Chemistry
Computer Science
Economics
Education
Engineering
English
International Relations
Latin American Studies
Math
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Sociology
Urban Studies

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MARY C. MURPHY is Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain
Sciences at Indiana University. Her research focuses on prejudice, ste-
reotyping, and the situational cues in education and organizations that
trigger social identity threat. She has published in various scholarly jour-
nals including Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic
Minority Psychology, and Social and Personality Psychological Science. Along
with Sabrina Zirkel and Julie A. Garcia, she has a forthcoming paper in
Educational Researcher on the use of experience sampling methodology
for Education research.
SABRINA ZIRKEL is Professor of Education at in the Mills College School
of Education. Her research interests center on issues of race, ethnicity,
and gender in education through a critical lens. Recent work has ap-
peared in Race, Ethnicity, and Education, Teachers College Record, Social Issues
and Policy Review, and The Urban Review. Along with Mary C. Murphy and
Julie A. Garcia, she has a forthcoming paper in Educational Researcher on
the use of experience sampling methodology for education research.