Bicultural & Bilingual Identity and Belonging in a College Setting

Abstract

Belonging is key to academic success. However, experiences with identity integration and perceived language discrimination may disrupt cognitive and social functioning, affecting the amount of belonging one feels (Slaten et al., 2016). This study aimed to address if bicultural identity integration and perceived language discrimination were directly associated with sense of belonging and loneliness in multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual populations in an academic setting. Participants from a small, public liberal arts school answered questions on their ability to speak multiple languages (or not) and their cultural and ethnic identity. Multicultural participants were directed to complete scales on identity integration, while participants whose first language was not English were directed to complete a scale on language discrimination. All participants, including monocultural and monolingual, responded to scales measuring belonging and loneliness. Surprisingly, results revealed a significant negative correlation between bicultural identity integration and sense of belonging and no significant correlation between bicultural identity integration and loneliness. No correlation between the measure of perceived language discrimination and belonging and loneliness was found. The small sample size may limit what can be generalized from this study. However, the results suggest that the relationship between identity integration and sense of belonging may be more complicated than previously assumed, at least at a relatively diverse public college.