Sense of Belonging Among College Students with Disabilities in STEM Fields: A Large-Scale Survey Analysis

Abstract

Sense of belonging is a key to educational success for all students, though much less is known about this topic among students with disabilities majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at four-year colleges and universities. To address this gap in the literature, we analyzed large-scale survey data from 4,518 undergraduate STEM majors with disabilities to explore the frequency and nature of their on- and off-campus experiences, paying close attention to the relationship between disabled STEM students' perceived sense of belonging and a battery of on- and off-campus experiences. Hierarchical linear regression identified 11 significant predictors of belonging (e.g., quality of interactions with peers, commute time to campus), which together explain 36% of the variance in scores. Results affirm the importance of on- and off-campus experiences (e.g., peer interactions, undergraduate research, working off-campus), yielding significant implications for future policy, practice, and research.