An Investigation of College Connectedness Factors During a National Pandemic

Primary Focus

This study investigated factors hypothesized to be associated with the connection students feel toward their college campus. Connectedness (the Dependent Variable) was measured by the Campus Connectedness Scale.  Factors (i.e., possible Independent Variables) that may relate or predict college connectedness included the following:

  • Dealing with Covid
  • Shyness
  • Interpersonal communication self-efficacy
  • Social media use and preferences
  • The Big Five Inventory (brief scale)

Learning Objectives for This StudyClick Here


Timeline

  • The data collection period began on October 10, 2021.
  • The data college period ended on February 15, 2022. Participating chatpers were asked to recruit at least 30 participants (more was better), then have their participants complete the research questionnaire.
  • Chapters were instructed to acquire local IRB approval as soon as possible.
  • The approved IRB proposal from Irvine Valley College (the study’s home college) – click here
  • For a PDF copy of the study questionnaire – click here
  • Codebook of items – click here
  • Background information on the Connectedness and Communication scales used in this year’s study – click here
  • Participants were recruited using the following recommended procedures
    • Instructor recruitment script – click here
    • Student (participant) recruitment script – click here
    • Participant tracking form – click here (Note: This is an example. Each chapter will need to make and manage its own version of this form. This form can be used to acquire student email addresses so you can send them a link to the study. The form can also be used to provide participant information to any instructors who agree to provide extra credit for their students to participate.)
  • We held  webinars on preparing the data (2.25.2022), analyzing the data (3.4.2022), and presenting the data (3.11.2022).

    ***To Participate*** We asked chapters to notify the Psi Beta headquarters if they planned to participate in this year’s study. They used this link – click here – to notify the national office.

      • After we received your notification to participate in this year’s study, Psi Beta’s national office forwarded a link to the online study. Chapters then emailed the link to their participants.
      • As they were received, chapter names were added to the “college name” item on the research questionnaire. This made it possible for chapters to examine just their own data, or the entire data set.

More Information on the Study’s Measures 

  • Campus Connectedness (Tucker & Rudmann, 2008)
    Unpublished instrument, Irvine Valley College Department of Psychology.
  • Shyness  (Weyer & Carducci, 2001)
    Weyer, C. Y., & Carducci, B. J. (2001, August). The three-component model of shyness: Conceptual, correlational, and treatment considerations. Post presentation at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco.
  • Interpersonal Communication Efficacy Scales – (Tucker & Rudmann, 2009)
    Unpublished instrument, Irvine Valley College Department of Psychology.
  • Social Media Usage Aims Scale (Hozum, 2016)
    Horzum, M. H. (2016). Examining the relationship to gender and personality on the purpose of Facebook usage of Turkish university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 319-328. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.010
  • Social Media Use Questionnaire – (Xanidis & Brignell, 2016)
    Xanidis, N., & Brignell, C. M. (2016). The association between the use of social network sites, sleep quality and cognitive function during the day. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 121–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.09.004
  • Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) (Gosling et al.,2003)
    Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B., Jr.(2003). A Very Brief Measure of the Big FivePersonality Domains. Journal of Research in Personality,37, 504-528.

Potential Hypotheses (the following are just a few examples)

  • The will be a negative correlation between shyness and campus connectedness.
  • There will be a negative correlation between Extraversion (Big 5) and shyness.
  • There will be a negative correlation between shyness and interpersonal communication self-efficacy.
  • Shy people will report great reliance on and use of social media.
  • Extraversion will correlate have a positive correlation with interpersonal communication comfort.
  • The average campus connectedness score will be lower compared to the average connectedness scores from several years ago (prior to Covid-19). NOTE: We measured Campus Connectedness in several prior national research studies. Data from those studies will be made available along with the data from the current study (after February 15, 2022).

 

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