title: Predicting school sense of community: students' perceptions at two Catholic universities.
abstract: Understanding the factors that predict sense of community (SOC) among college students has important implications for higher education policy and practice. The present study determined whether perceptions of inclusion and religious pluralism across 2,199 university students' (1,442 women, 757 men; M age = 23.42, SD =7.84) at two Catholic universities predicted levels of school sense of community (SSOC). As expected, results indicated that perceptions of both inclusion and religious pluralism significantly predicted SSOC. However, mixed results were found regarding the interaction of university setting with inclusion and religious pluralism. Limitations and future directions for research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois 60614, USA.
authors.forename: Todd L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Bottom
authors.forename: Joseph R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matteo
authors.forename: Nathan R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Todd
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002410:Catholicism; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D012933:Social Identification; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities