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Empirical Evidence to Support the Measurement of Sense of Belonging in Graduate Students

Tai Do et al.

American Behavioral Scientist2026https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642261431478article
AJG 1ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

A measure of graduate student sense of belonging with adequate psychometric properties was established. We conducted secondary analysis using data from the 2021 Graduate Student Experiences at Research Universities Survey and found evidence supporting the underlying factor structure of sense of belonging as a single latent trait among 12 rating scale items. Furthermore, there was weak to strong evidence that sense of belonging was associated with internal and external factors such as mental distress and graduate program satisfaction. From these results, we expanded on graduate students’ sense of belonging and provided evidence to inform decisions that researchers, administrators, and practitioners can make with respect to graduate education and student success.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642261431478

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@article{tai2026,
  title        = {{Empirical Evidence to Support the Measurement of Sense of Belonging in Graduate Students}},
  author       = {Tai Do et al.},
  journal      = {American Behavioral Scientist},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642261431478},
}

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Empirical Evidence to Support the Measurement of Sense of Belonging in Graduate Students

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.