Association between Perceived Ease of Establishing Relationships and Feeling at Home on Campus at an Urban University

Abstract

Aim: To examine whether students’ ratings of perceived ease of establishing relationships and faculty/staff connection were associated with their ratings of feeling at home on campus after adjustment for measured demographic, enrolment, employment, organizational, and substance-use characteristics. Each focal variable was assessed using a single item. Study Design:  Cross-sectional study design was used. Place and Duration of Study: Data were collected at San José State University in San José, California, U.S., from September 2022 to April 2023. Methodology: Participants were 214 undergraduates. Bivariate associations were evaluated using Spearman rank-order correlations and nonparametric group comparisons, with Holm family-wise correction across 16 primary comparisons. Proportional-odds ordinal logistic regression estimated adjusted associations. Threshold-specific models were examined because the proportional-odds assumption was not fully met. Results: Ratings of perceived ease of establishing relationships were positively correlated with feeling-at-home ratings (ρ = .26, Holm-adjusted p = .003). In the broadly adjusted complete-case model (n = 193), relationship-ease ratings remained positively associated with feeling-at-home responses (common OR = 1.65, 95% CI [1.27, 2.16], p < .001). The common odds ratio provides an overall summary because the magnitude of the association varied across cumulative response thresholds. Faculty/staff connection was not statistically significant after multiplicity correction or multivariable adjustment. Bivariate analyses did not detect statistically significant associations or differences across most measured demographic, contextual, and behavioural characteristics. Adding the specified broader covariate block did not significantly improve model fit within the complete-case sample. The isolated Black-versus-White coefficient was based on seven Black participants and was not supported by the omnibus ethnicity test. Conclusion: In this single-site cross-sectional sample, higher relationship-ease ratings were associated with higher feeling-at-home ratings after adjustment for the measured covariates. The finding is limited to a concurrent item-level association and does not establish temporal direction, causal influence, or the empirical distinctiveness of the experiences assessed. Longitudinal research using validated multi-item measures is needed to clarify these questions.