University Students' Sense of Community and Its Relationships With Well-Being and Risk of Drop-Out

Sense of community has emerged as a pivotal factor in enhancing well-being. Universities are small communities where students develop academic skills and personal networks, and where the degree of integration and perceived support significantly influence various aspects of the educational experience. However, little consideration was given to the measure of the specific sense of community of university students. While existing instruments assess communities at the school classroom level, they often overlook the broader university context. Literature provides a Scale of Sense of Community in university online courses (SSC-UOC), but its applicability to face-to-face environments remains untested. The present study aims to adapt the SSC-UOC for measuring university students' sense of community in face-to-face university contexts (Study 1) and to examine how the sense of community relates to well-being, satisfaction and risk of drop-out (Study 2), addressing a key gap in understanding the role of community in shaping university experiences. A sample of 439 Italian university students was involved. The results demonstrate the validity and reliability of the specific University Students' Sense of Community Scale (US-SoC) and reveal that academic satisfaction mediates the relationship between the sense of community and outcomes, including well-being, intentions to withdraw and stress among university students. Finally, the study emphasises the importance of considering the relationships between psychosocial variables such as the sense of community and academic success in actions aimed at supporting the well-being of university students.