Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

1-2024

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7172-8602

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Dr Robert Haussmann

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Dr. Sarah Salkil

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Dr. Mark McCallon

Abstract

Colleges and universities across the United States actively seek to bring quality students to their institutions and retain them through their course of study while striving to support the successful completion of their degree. The problem is that students face many sources of adversity within their first year of college and leave the institution they have enrolled in before returning for their second year, including financial issues, mental health struggles, and academic success problems. The reasons students leave vary, but it remains important to help students feel connected to the community of their campus while supporting their mental health during an important time or transition in their personal development. The research questions that drove this study are as follows: (a) Is there a significant relationship between a high sense of community in the first semester of college and the retention into the second year? (b) If there is a significant correlation, is there a predictive relationship between a high sense of community within the first semester that controls for the experience of depression and anxiety experienced in the first year of college and their likelihood to retain into their second year? (c) Do higher levels of depression mitigate the effect of a sense of community in student’s likelihood to retain into their second year? (d) Do higher levels of anxiety mitigate the effect of a sense of community in student’s likelihood to retain into their second year? The participants were 75 first-year students at a Midwestern Christian university who took part in surveys to collect data on sense of community and experience with mental health issues. The data were compared to retention numbers in their second year for analysis. The findings showed no significant correlation between a sense of community, mental health problems, and a student’s likelihood to retain into their second year. Keywords: Sense of community, mental health problems, retention, student success, higher education, first-year students.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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