To address the challenge of upending their lives and leaving behind familiar social worlds, many universities thoughtfully equip new college students with built-in communities. They come in the shape of university dorms—and sometimes Hogwarts-style residential colleges—which are intended to support living, learning, and belonging during this pivotal life event. And indeed, for most first-year college students, the dorm becomes the back-bone of their social network on campus.
Unlike other social communities—athletics, friend groups, fraternities and sororities—students often don’t choose or get selected into their housing community. Instead, many universities assign students to their houses randomly.
The research
Our team was conducting a large-scale longitudinal study, the Stanford Communities Project, to understand the importance of students’ social connections within these very communities for their well-being throughout college. We know how critical it is to find and choose your community; but we started to consider—how important is the hand you’re dealt? Communities come in all flavors: some are warm and supportive, while others may be cold and divisive.
We introduced the concept of a “social microclimate”, which reflects the unique social and emotional features of one’s community, like the dispositions of friends and relationships among neighbors. We then explored its connection to students’ well-being, as reported through survey responses related to life satisfaction and psychological distress.
What we found
We compared the relative importance of individual factors, social factors, and features of the social microclimate. As expected, we found that aspects of one’s personality and sociodemographic characteristics explained large portions of variance in their well-being, as did having more social ties. But in addition, aspects of the social microclimate—namely, the emotional stability of friends and how densely connected the dorm community is—were associated with students’ psychological distress (related to self-reported depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety). The variance explained was small; but we viewed this as a proof of concept.
Of course, finding a community is critical—but qualities of that community seem to matter, as well.
Outside of the university context, we all find ourselves in incidental communities, complete with unique casts of characters, relational dynamics, and emotional tones. These incidental communities can, for example, be our workplace or our most frequented cafe. It’s worth being thoughtful about the potential impacts our incidental, or chosen, communities can have on us—and that we may have on others around us.
How to apply these findings
We offer a checklist of tangible actions inspired by these findings that we hope can be used by community architects and leaders. Yet, we are mindful that this research requires replication.
Offer opportunities for “community building” through active participation and/or social interventions
Keep communities small to facilitate dense connections, belonging, and user engagement
Avoid perturbing community structure—e.g., residential college systems updated the default from one of switching communities to one of remaining in community
Encourage members of the community to express care by practicing self-care, including strategies for coping with stress
Promote connections with resilient, empathic community members
Create bridges for those who may be disconnected or stuck in negative corners of their community
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