You Are College Material—You Belong: An Underrepresented Minority Student Retention Intervention Without Deception

Is it possible to lower high college dropout rates among underrepresented minority students by strengthening their sense of belonging on campus? This study reports results from a randomized, controlled trial of You Are College Material–You Belong, a brief social-belonging intervention. The promising findings suggest that social-belonging interventions can contribute to academic retention gains for minority students without resorting to deception, a common element in the protocol for such interventions.

Project: Increasing Student Retention in Forest Park Community College