Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?

Gregory M Walton; Mary C Murphy; Christine Logel; David S Yeager; J Parker Goyer; Shannon T Brady; Katherine T U Emerson; David Paunesku; Omid Fotuhi; Alison Blodorn; Kathryn L Boucher; Evelyn R Carter; Maithreyi Gopalan; Amy Henderson; Kathryn M Kroeper; Lisel Alice Murdock-Perriera; Stephanie L Reeves; Tsotso T Ablorh; Shahana Ansari; Susie Chen; Peter Fisher; Manuel Galvan; Madison Kawakami Gilbertson; Chris S Hulleman; Joel M Le Forestier; Christopher Lok; Katie Mathias; Gregg A Muragishi; Melanie Netter; Elise Ozier; Eric N Smith; Dustin B Thoman; Heidi E Williams; Matthew O Wilmot; Cassie Hartzog; X Alice Li; Natasha Krol

doi:10.1126/science.ade4420

Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?

Science. 2023 May 5;380(6644):499-505. doi: 10.1126/science.ade4420. Epub 2023 May 4.

Authors

Gregory M Walton¹, Mary C Murphy², Christine Logel³, David S Yeager⁴, J Parker Goyer¹, Shannon T Brady⁵, Katherine T U Emerson², David Paunesku^{1

6}, Omid Fotuhi⁷, Alison Blodorn^#¹, Kathryn L Boucher^#⁸, Evelyn R Carter^#⁹, Maithreyi Gopalan^#¹⁰, Amy Henderson^#¹, Kathryn M Kroeper^#¹¹, Lisel Alice Murdock-Perriera^#¹², Stephanie L Reeves^#¹³, Tsotso T Ablorh^#¹⁴, Shahana Ansari^#¹⁵, Susie Chen^#¹³, Peter Fisher^#¹⁶, Manuel Galvan^#¹⁷, Madison Kawakami Gilbertson^#¹⁸, Chris S Hulleman^#¹⁹, Joel M Le Forestier^#²⁰, Christopher Lok^#²¹, Katie Mathias^#², Gregg A Muragishi^#²², Melanie Netter^#⁴, Elise Ozier^#², Eric N Smith^#²³, Dustin B Thoman^#²⁴, Heidi E Williams^#², Matthew O Wilmot^#²⁵, Cassie Hartzog¹, X Alice Li¹, Natasha Krol¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
² Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
³ Department of Social Development Studies, Renison University College, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
⁶ The Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS), San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁷ Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
⁹ Paradigm, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Education Policy Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychology, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, USA.
¹² School of Education, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA.
¹³ WGU Labs, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Psychology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁸ School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁹ School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
²¹ Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
²² Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
²³ Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
²⁴ Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
²⁵ Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37141344
DOI: 10.1126/science.ade4420

Abstract

A promising way to mitigate inequality is by addressing students' worries about belonging. But where and with whom is this social-belonging intervention effective? Here we report a team-science randomized controlled experiment with 26,911 students at 22 diverse institutions. Results showed that the social-belonging intervention, administered online before college (in under 30 minutes), increased the rate at which students completed the first year as full-time students, especially among students in groups that had historically progressed at lower rates. The college context also mattered: The intervention was effective only when students' groups were afforded opportunities to belong. This study develops methods for understanding how student identities and contexts interact with interventions. It also shows that a low-cost, scalable intervention generalizes its effects to 749 4-year institutions in the United States.

MeSH terms

Achievement*
Humans
Psychosocial Intervention
Random Allocation
Social Identification*
Students* / psychology
Universities