Belongingness and Who We Feel We Belong With

Abstract

There have been a few studies about belongingness and why people belong, but there has not been a direct answer yet. In our study, we tried to also find out why people feel belongingness and specifically who they would say they feel like they belong with more. The hypothesis was college students would say they belong more with their friends than with family members. Ninety-two participants took a survey online about their feeling of belongingness. Throughout the survey, participants answered questions about a time they felt like they belonged and questions to give factual information about their experiences. The key questions of the study were about who the participants felt like they belonged with more because that was what the hypothesis was looking for answers to. The results showed that participants wrote more about friends for the question about a time when they felt like they belonged and that the participants said they felt like they belonged more with friends than family members. Looking at the reason why that the participants wrote, a majority of the participants wrote that they chose their friends because of support and understanding. Keywords: Belonging, Connection, Friends, Family