Strength in community: Explaining the relationship between stress and belongingness through optimism among minoritized college students

Objective: Stress undermines mental and physical health for college students, particularly for students from minoritized backgrounds. This study explored the associations between belongingness (i.e., acceptance and rejection), optimism, and stress in a predominantly Hispanic student sample. Additionally, we tested an explanatory framework for understanding how optimism could explain the association between belongingness and stress. Participants and Methods: Participants (N = 260) completed online assessments measuring acceptance, rejection, optimism, and perceived stress. Results: Results showed that feelings of acceptance predicted higher optimism and lower stress. Conversely, feelings of rejection predicted lower optimism and higher stress. Further, optimism partially accounted for the relationship between belongingness and stress, suggesting that a stronger sense of acceptance predicts optimism, which in turn predicts reduced stress; whereas, a stronger sense of rejection predicts reduced optimism, which in turn predicts increased stress. Conclusions: These insights highlight the potential for belongingness and optimism to mitigate stress among minoritized students.