Developing Low-income College Students' Sense of Belonging: The Role of Validation
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Earning a college degree can be a transformational life experience for low-income students that breaks cycles of poverty and opens doors to rewarding career opportunities and increased quality of life (White House, 2014). The share of students from low-income backgrounds attending college has increased over the past few decades, and they make up a substantial proportion of today's college students (Fry & Cilluffo, 2019). However, they are much less likely to complete college compared with their higher-income counterparts (Cahalan et al., 2018, Fry & Cilluffo, 2019; NCES, 2018). Much attention has been paid to the financial factors that influence low-income students' college completion; however, low-income students face many cultural and social challenges in college that also have implications for their completion and are equally deserving of scholars' attention (Kezar, 2011). Developing a sense of belonging in culturally alienating college environments that privilege middle- and upper-class norms, values, language, and knowledge is one such challenge facing low-income students that has implications for their college success and completion (Hurst, 2010; Soria & Stebleton, 2013; see Strayhorn, 2019 for a comprehensive discussion of college sense of belonging).
Researchers have revealed a strong association between sense of belonging and students' social class and economic background (Bettencourt, 2021; Ostrove & Long, 2007; Soria & Bultmann, 2014). Notably, students from less advantaged economic and class backgrounds typically report a lower sense of belonging in college compared with their middle and upper-class peers (Bettencourt, 2021; Soria & Stebleton, 2013). They also face difficulty finding staff, faculty, and peers to connect with who share their social class backgrounds and experiences. To address gaps in college completion, educators (i.e., faculty, staff) bear responsibility for increasing low-income students' sense of belonging and identifying asset- and strengths-based practices that effectively promote low-income students' belonging (Colyar, 2011; Rendón & Muñoz, 2011). Validation is one such promising practice that focuses on how student support is delivered by staff and faculty rather than on what specific support offices and services are offered (Rendón & Muñoz, 2011.
Validation is a holistic process initiated by educators who (a) proactively reach out to students early on and consistently; (b) build genuine, caring relationships in and out of the classroom; (c) discover and affirm students' backgrounds and identities; (d) communicate to students that their backgrounds are valuable assets and have a critical role in their education; (e) reassure students of their innate capabilities and potential for success; and (f) actively connect students to support that is tailored to their [End Page 231] backgrounds and identities to empower them to leverage their assets and achieve college success (Rendón & Muñoz, 2011). While still nascent, research has shown the promise of validation for promoting belonging among first-generation and community college students and as a practice that effectively mitigates the influence of discrimination on belonging (Baber, 2018; Hurtado et al., 2015; Museus & Chang, 2021).
Scholars have hypothesized that validating low-income students is a promising practice to increase their sense of belonging and success (Soria & Stebelton, 2013). To date, no robust quantitative research has focused on whether validation is associated with increased sense of belonging among low-income students explicitly, nor has research explored this relationship from a nuanced perspective that recognizes the many intersecting identities of low-income students. Accordingly, this study answers two research questions:
RQ1. What is the relationship between validation and low-income college students' sense of belonging in their first year?
RQ2. Does that link vary by low-income students' other characteristics (e.g., race, sex, GPA)?
STUDY CONTEXT
This study is part of a larger mixed-methods study of low-income student success at three campuses of the University of Nebraska system (Cole, Kitchen, & Kezar, 2019). The three campuses include the University of Nebraska, Kearney, a rural, regional, residential campus that began as a normal school; the University of Nebraska, Omaha, a metropolitan university that serves a racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse student population; and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, a Research 1 university and land grant institution. Each campus offers an ecology of support services to promote...
