Student-Faculty and Student-Peer Relationships as Mediators of the Structural Effects of Undergraduate Residence Arrangement

A quasi-experimental design was employed to investigate the influence of undergraduate residence setting on freshman year educational outcomes such as academic achievement, institutional persistence, and measures of intellectual and personal growth. With the influence of fifteen pre-enrollment characteristics held constant, residence in an experimental living center was found to be positively and significantly associated with freshman year persistence, measures of intellectual and personal growth and sense of intellectual community. The results further suggest, however, that the structural and organizational influence of residence arrangement is accounted for, or mediated by, the quality of interpersonal interactions with important agents of socialization (faculty and peers).