Sense of belonging and academic persistence among undergraduate university students: The chain mediation effect of emotional and academic adjustment

This study examined the relationship between sense of belonging and academic persistence, as mediated by emotional and academic adjustment. A total of 955 South African undergraduate students were participants (female = 71.7%; black = 44.8%; mean age = 27.80 years, SD = 7.65 years). They completed surveys on sense of belonging, emotional adjustment, academic adjustment, and academic persistence. Mediation analysis results showed that a sense of belonging significantly predicted academic persistence. Furthermore, emotional and academic adjustment independently and significantly mediated the relationship between sense of belonging and academic persistence, for higher academic persistence. The results further showed that emotional and academic adjustment played a significant chain mediation role in the relationship between sense of belonging and academic persistence. From these findings, we conclude that sense of belonging influences academic persistence through emotional and academic adjustment. These results suggest the need for university programmes to foster academic persistence in students by being supportive of their sense of belonging and providing resources for emotional and academic adjustment.