Full Paper: Exploratory Look at First-Year Engineering Students Sense of Belonging and Belonging Uncertainty

We present an initial, exploratory study of belonging and belonging uncertainty as related to topics of engineering identity, engineering culture, confidence in major selection, and use of university support resources among first-year engineering students. The first-year engineering program at our university is committed to supporting students' sense of belonging and mitigating belonging uncertainty, but it is still unclear how the two constructs corelate to other outcomes of interest. We collected quantitative, Likert-scale survey data on first-year engineering students' perceptions of belonging, engineering identity, engineering culture, engagement with university resources, and confidence in major selection at the start and the end of the 2023-24 academic year. We present descriptive statistics and an exploratory investigation into correlations between sense of belonging, belonging uncertainty, and various outcomes. Our exploratory findings revealed that sense of belonging did increase over the first year, and that sense of belonging correlated with belonging uncertainty. Additional findings include that sense of belonging increased with increasing engineering identity, faculty support, peer support, and, minimally, with confidence in future major coursework. There was no correlation with campus support resources. Findings highlight that sense of belonging is complex and no one factor can explain or predict belonging. These initial findings will inform future studies and provide valuable preliminary insights for first-year engineering programs interested in enhancing the experiences and academic outcomes of their students from a belonging perspective.