Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Throughout much of American history, spirituality has played an important role in the lives of students of color. This has led to students of color tending to have higher levels of spiritual identity compared to their White peers. Additionally, we have seen increased access to higher education for previously underrepresented student populations. Researchers demonstrated that students with a strong spiritual identity tend to perform better academically, persist to graduation, have more intentional mentoring, and connect better with peers, all of which are common factors of student success. Yet, students of color continue to lag behind their White peers in these very metrics. Literature on thriving students indicate that the most important pathway for students to thrive is psychological sense of community. The purpose of this study was to explore how spirituality impacts psychological sense of community among first year minoritized students. This study explored the relationship between spirituality and psychological sense of community among first year minoritized students. Participants were first-time students at institutions of higher education that participated in the Thriving Quotient during Fall 2020 semester. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the prediction of psychological sense of community from spirituality. Results shows that 22.5% of the variance in psychological sense of community can be accounted for by spirituality, F (3,1160) = 113.45, p < .001. Further, the results indicated some variables of race positively contributed to psychological sense of community; however, the strength of the relationship varies.

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