A Multidimensional Comparison of Traditional, Transfer, and Online Students’ University Attachment

Institutional belonging has been connected in the literature to college student well-being, achievement, persistence, and retention. However, much of this literature uses a one-dimensional scale to examine this construct. The University Attachment Scale (UAS; France, Finney, & Swerdzewski, 2010) is a multidimensional instrument with purported value, but structural results are limited to a single sample from a primarily traditional student population. This study re-examined the UAS at an institution with a large transfer student population and compared the latent means between traditional (n = 561), transfer (n = 372), and online (n = 50) students. Findings indicated transfer and online students report lower levels of member attachment relative to traditional students, a dimension not currently captured by other belonging scales. This may have value for the college student development literature, given increased calls for belonging research and a rise in distance-based education.

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