IS BELONGINGNESS THE KEY TO INCREASING STUDENT WELLNESS AND SUCCESS? A LONGITUDINAL FIELD STUDY OF A SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTION AND A UNIVERSITY’S RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES by BRIAN A. M. CLARK A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2016 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Brian A. M. Clark Title: Is Belongingness the Key to Increasing Student Wellness and Success? A Longitudinal Field Study of a Social-Psychological Intervention and a University’s Residential Communities This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Psychology by: Sara Hodges Chairperson Sanjay Srivastava Core Member Elliot Berkman Core Member Ryan Light Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded September 2016 ii © 2016 Brian A. M. Clark This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (United States) License. iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Brian A. M. Clark Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology September 2016 Title: Is Belongingness the Key to Increasing Student Wellness and Success? A Longitudinal Field Study of a Social-Psychological Intervention and a University’s Residential Communities Institutions of higher education are replete with programs designed to position incoming undergraduate students to successfully persist toward a degree and to do and be well along the way. This longitudinal field study of incoming students’ transitional year focused on outcomes associated with two common types of program: bridge programs and living-learning programs. Bridge programs are intended to boost achievement and persistence of structurally disadvantaged (e.g., low-income) students to close the gap between them and their more advantaged peers, usually with some combination of financial and academic support. Living-learning programs are intended to generally promote achievement and persistence through the intentional formation of communities in which groups of students live together in wings of residence halls and engage in curricular and/or cocurricular activities together. Social-psychological interventions have been inspired by critiques that such programs inadequately support students who are at a structural disadvantage. Specifically, critiques have argued that financial and academic support are insufficient, that students also need psychological support. To strongly test that claim, I replicated one of these interventions within a bridge program and examined whether it affected students’ wellness and success at the end of their transitional year, over and above the bridge program itself. I also examined whether living-learning programs contributed to students’ wellness and success over and above living in conventional residence halls, and whether either of those two types of residential groups differed from students living off-campus. iv Results from the intervention did not fit the theoretical framework on which it was based, the same framework contextualized in the bridge program, or an alternative framework on which other similar interventions are based. Results regarding residential groups suggest that living- learning communities did not augment wellness or success, at least at the particular institution under study. Rather, living on campus generally is associated with a greater sense of social- belonging, higher life satisfaction, more extracurricular activity, and taking advantage of campus resources. Practical advice and recommendations for administrators and researchers are outlined in the Discussion. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Brian A. M. Clark GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon Wake Forest University, North Carolina University of North Carolina at Greensboro DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Psychology, 2016, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Psychology, 2009, Wake Forest University Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, 2007, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy, 2007, University of North Carolina at Greensboro PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Data Analyst and Coordinator of Assessment and Research, Division of Student Life, University of Oregon, 2015-present Data Specialist, Student Life Assessment and Research, University of Oregon, 2012-2015 Data Analyst, Substance Abuse Prevention and Education, Office of the Dean of Students, University of Oregon, 2012 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, 2009-2012 Teaching/Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University 2007- 2009 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Norman D. Sundberg Fellowship in Psychology, University of Oregon, 2015 Graduate Education Committee Research Award, University of Oregon, 2015 Gary E. Smith Summer Professional Development Award, University of Oregon, 2014 Graduate School Research Award, University of Oregon, 2011, 2013 Graduate Education Committee Travel Award, University of Oregon, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Gregores Research Excellence Award, University of Oregon, 2012 Summer Research Support Award, Wake Forest University, 2008 vi Undergraduate Research Assistantship Award, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2005 PUBLICATIONS: Laurent, S. M., Clark, B. A. M., & Schweitzer, K. A. (2015). Why side-effect outcomes do not influence intuitions about intentionality: Properly shifting the focus from intentional outcomes back to intentional actions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108, 18-36. Laurent, S. M., Clark, B. A. M., Wiseman, K., & Walker, S. (2014). Punishing Hypocrisy: The roles of hypocrisy, moral emotions, and intentionality in deciding guilt and punishment for criminal and civil moral transgressors. Cognition and Emotion, 28, 59-83. Moore, A. B., Lee, N. Y. L., Clark, B. A. M., & Conway, A. R. A. (2011). In defense of the personal/impersonal distinction in moral psychology research: Cross-cultural validation of the dual process model of moral judgment. Judgment and Decision Making, 6, 186-195. Hodges, S. D., Clark, B. A. M., & Myers, M. W. (2011). Better living through perspective taking. In R. Biswas-Diener (Ed.), Positive psychology as a mechanism for social change (pp. 193-218). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Press. Moore, A. B., Clark, B. A., & Kane, M. J. (2008). Who shalt not kill? Individual differences in working memory capacity, executive control, and moral judgment. Psychological Science, 19, 549-557. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, to the incoming students at the University of Oregon who participated in this research, this quite literally could not have been done without you. Neither could it have been done without the panelists (Lina Allen, Taylor Barnhart, Kaytee Carrigan, Jennie Lee, May Saechao, Anna Serrano, Paul Pham, and Claudia Urias-Guerrero), who shared their stories with incoming students, and moderators (Mati Berevejillo, Ruth Grenke, Sienna Stevenson, and Thuc Vinh), who ran the show. Infinite thanks for all of your integral contributions. The administrative support that went into realizing this project was massive. Topping the list, sincere gratitude is owed to Grant Schoonover. Thank you for your support and insight throughout the process. Baseline measurements would have been a bust without support from Jim Rawlins. (This is what Jim said to me in our first correspondence: “I rarely ever grant access to anyone outside of our division for students before they are here. With that said, though, I’m intrigued by what you want to study, and want to consider making an exception to allow for this, or at least something really close to it.”) I cannot thank you enough for believing in this endeavor. Warm thanks to Sue Eveland for supplying educational records and background characteristics and Jim Blick for the query work, as well as Jim Brooks for supplying financial need records. Earnest thanks to Michael Griffel, Anna Schmidt, Heather Kropf, and Kevin Hatfield for all of your support, advice, and guidance that went into the residential community focus of the project. And an extra, special thanks to Heather for sponsoring the space in which the workshops were held. Additionally, thanks to Philippe Bou Malham for supplying the residential records, for kicking ideas around with me, and for being an awesome coworker, colleague, and friend. Crucial thanks to Robin Holmes for your financial, professional, and emotional support throughout the process; it could not have happened otherwise. And many smiles to Stan Dura for planting the idea-seed, encouraging it as it developed, and helping fund it when it was full-grown. To the core of my committee, Sara Hodges, Sanjay Srivastava, and Elliot Berkman, wise Jedi, you are indeed, for recommending just one intervention, not two. Thank you also for your viii understanding and support when I jumped research tracks entirely to pursue a better fit to the direction in which my professional train veered. And thank you for your mentorship across my now lengthy graduate student career. Finally, to Ryan Light, you are a standup dude for pinch- hitting as my Institutional Representative. Your altruism is much appreciated. As with most things, this could not have happened without cash money. So, many thanks are due for all of the dollars. First, thanks