Social Support, Sense of Community, and Psychological Distress Among College Students: Examining the Impact of University Housing Units

Abstract

Attending college can be a rewarding but stressful time for students. Colleges and universities across the nation are becoming more and more concerned with the mental health of their students. Although past research has explored how social support and sense of community help students make a better transition to college life, less is known about how these factors interact with where students choose to live. This study examines the relationship between social support, psychological sense of community, residence hall capacity, and psychological distress. Participants from three college campuses in the Midwest were administered surveys to assess perceived social support, psychological sense of community, psychological distress, and various identifying variables. Results showed that social support did not vary across differing hall capacities while sense of community did. Furthermore, when social support, sense of community, residence hall capacity, and psychological distress were analyzed together, only social support and sense of community scores showed significant predictive value of psychological distress. Residence hall capacity did not show predictive value related to psychological distress levels.