A quantitative study on impacts of different types of stressors on sense of belonging among college students in Hong Kong

Abstract

The relationship of stress and sense of belonging is widely discussed. However, knowledge involving categorization of five types of stressors including frustrations, conflicts, pressure, changes and self-imposed towards belongingness is relatively weak. Therefore, the study examines the impacts of the stressors and their interactions with demographic factors on sense of belonging. The examination attach to the perspective of resource theory. Its core proposition is that resources are the determinants of quality of life. A survey of 180 college students provided data for analysis. Results showed that frustrations and pressure directly affect sense of belonging while conflicts, pressure and self-imposed cause influences indirectly through the interactions with background characteristics. Moreover, it is found that each of the five types of stressors had its own mechanism for affecting sense of belonging. At the end, some suggestions were made to reduce stress and improve sense of belonging among students.