Contextual Background
Many investigations of students’ sense of belonging on college campuses begin with a description and analysis of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1954). One of the first humanistic psychologists, Maslow created a model for positive human potential (Desmet & Fokkinga, 2020). He wanted to understand what motivates human beings and discovered that humans are motivated by core innate needs (Desmet & Fokkinga, 2020 ). While so much educational research falls by the wayside, decade after decade Maslow’s model has maintained currency and relevance (Abulof, 2017). This hierarchy seems to make sense intuitively, because individuals can recognize their own life journey and struggles within the Hierarchy of Needs (Abulof, 2017). It is also graphically appealing and easy to understand intuitively (Desmet & Fokkinga, 2020). The model also seems to bring order to the chaotic experience of life (Rutledge, 2011). Looking at the triangle/pyramid from the bottom to the top, we can perceive human development as a step-by-step process from survival, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-realization. Maslow’s earliest presentation led people to believe that we could not skip steps, and that in order to feel safe, we need to have our basic survival needs met. Later, Maslow revised his model, maintaining that the needs are interrelated (Bowen, 2021). The pyramid itself did not change, just the understanding that progress up the pyramid is not linear and that steps could be experienced simultaneously.
Maslow’s model is helpful for trying to understand the needs of college students. Strayhorn (2019, p. 163) revised Maslow’s model to reflect student life and understand student motivation. Maslow maintained that in order to have a sense of wellbeing, each essential need must contribute to the whole. Overcompensating one need because of a deficit within another need will never work – all contribute to a person’s healthy sense of oneself (Desmet, 2020). Significantly, if a student does not have enough to eat, does not have shelter, is struggling to pay bills, does not feel safe, physically or emotionally, getting to the level where they have a sense of belonging will be a struggle. Succeeding in school will also be at risk (Strayhorn, 2019). Students may suffer from what is known as “deprivation of belonging” (p.20). They simply do not have the energy or bandwidth needed to make friends and build caring, supportive relationships. Given that belonging is essential for humans to thrive, understanding what helps students feel as though they belong on campus and belong to their college is essential if we are interested in student wellbeing and student success (Strayhorn, 2019).
Even before the Covid-19 virus swept across the globe, 39% of college students experienced some type of mental health issue, with less than one third receiving treatment (Stowe, 2021). The stress of Covid-19 kept many students at the bottom two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, with the stress of food, shelter, health, and monetary insecurities taking psychological priority. Economic and resource hardships for students belonging to racialized minorities and lower socioeconomic communities kept many students struggling to meet their basic needs, focusing their energies on the lower levels of the needs pyramid, as well (Stowe, et al., 2021). Suddenly many students lost secure campus housing, campus dining service, and campus employment (Stowe, et al., 2021). The fallout from the pandemic has led scholars to reexamine what responsibility higher education has for the wellbeing of students. So often, the academic needs are addressed, yet the needs of the whole student must be satisfied in order for higher order learning to happen (Gerstein, 2014). Crucially, Strayhorn (2019) argues that college students cannot meet their own goals and aspirations without feeling as though they are members of the campus community.