Virtuous or downward spirals – a qualitative exploration of the interconnections between student belonging, engagement, and anxiety over time

Students’ sense of belonging at university is increasingly linked to positive student success outcomes. Recent research has added greatly to understanding around the factors that affect student belonging, such as student engagement and wellbeing, however most research explores the topic through a single snapshot; limiting an understanding of how belonging interacts with these factors over time. The originality of this study lies in addressing this gap in longitudinal belonging research by exploring the online diaries and survey responses from 39 first-year undergraduate students at two English universities. Reflexive thematic analysis was utilised to understand how students described their journeys of belonging across the first year of study. The results of this study show how students perceive virtuous or downward spirals between engagement and belonging, as well as how anxiety influences how students balance acting authentically with pushing the boundaries of their comfort zones. Universities have an opportunity to utilise these findings through updated approaches to talking with students about the connections between belonging, engagement and anxiety. This could be part of social belonging interventions, personal tutoring conversations, or other student communications routes. Furthermore, the close links between belonging and engagement could be considered as part of how universities establish learning analytics approaches – recognising that changes in students’ engagement patterns are likely to be closely linked to changes in students’ sense of belonging. The article ends with recommendations for practice on these above topics, as well as reflecting on limitations with the study design and implementation.

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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