A Brief Social-Belonging Intervention Improves Academic and Health Outcomes of Minority Students

TLDR

The study tested a brief social‑belonging intervention designed to reduce perceived campus threat by framing adversity as common and transient, targeting especially African‑American freshmen. The intervention employed subtle attitude‑change techniques that prompted students to self‑generate the belonging message. Over three years the intervention increased African‑American students’ GPA, narrowed the achievement gap by half, improved health and reduced doctor visits, with effects mediated by reduced perceived campus threat.

Abstract

A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial (N = 92), and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient. It used subtle attitude-change strategies to lead participants to self-generate the intervention message. The intervention was expected to be particularly beneficial to African-American students (N = 49), a stereotyped and socially marginalized group in academics, and less so to European-American students (N = 43). Consistent with these expectations, over the 3-year observation period the intervention raised African Americans' grade-point average (GPA) relative to multiple control groups and halved the minority achievement gap. This performance boost was mediated by the effect of the intervention on subjective construal: It prevented students from seeing adversity on campus as an indictment of their belonging. Additionally, the intervention improved African Americans' self-reported health and well-being and reduced their reported number of doctor visits 3 years postintervention. Senior-year surveys indicated no awareness among participants of the intervention's impact. The results suggest that social belonging is a psychological lever where targeted intervention can have broad consequences that lessen inequalities in achievement and health.