ABSTRACT

With respect to supporting student well-being and success, the current research developed a peer support scheme, built on the principles of Social Identity Theory (SIT). This was targeted towards first year undergraduate psychology students, in which measures of collective identity, sense of belonging, group efficacy, happiness and resilience were obtained, along with attendance and academic attainment. Following one academic year of being part of our peer support scheme, participants (N = 90) completed a questionnaire and consented to their attendance and attainment data to be used. It was found that students’ collective identity was positively related to their sense of belonging, group efficacy beliefs and happiness. Further, the sense of belonging was a reliable predictor of happiness, but not attendance or academic attainment. Therefore, there is some evidence to suggest that an SIT-driven peer support scheme can support students’ psychosocial well-being, although more is needed to ascertain whether this could be developed further to observe any course-related outcomes. Theoretical contributions to SIT are therefore presented, in which the insights can be applied to Higher Education beyond the UK.

摘要

关于支持学生的福祉和成功，当前的研究开发了一个基于社会认同理论 (SIT) 原则的同伴支持计划。这是针对一年级本科心理学学生，其中获得了集体认同感、归属感、群体效能、幸福感和适应力，以及出勤率和学业成绩的衡量标准。在加入我们的同伴支持计划一学年之后，参与者 ( N= 90) 完成问卷并同意使用他们的出勤和成绩数据。研究发现，学生的集体认同感与其归属感、群体效能信念和幸福感呈正相关。此外，归属感是幸福感的可靠预测指标，但不是出勤或学业成绩的指标。因此，有一些证据表明 SIT 驱动的同伴支持计划可以支持学生的社会心理健康，尽管需要更多的信息来确定是否可以进一步开发以观察任何与课程相关的结果。因此，提出了对 SIT 的理论贡献，其中的见解可以应用于英国以外的高等教育。