PLACE ATTACHMENT IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: SOCIAL ANTECEDENTS AND ACADEMIC MOTIVATIONS

Each year the university receives thousands of new students. Some students successfully attach to the school, while some don’t. The thesis aims to study predictors and consequences of university students’ place attachment to the university. It was hypothesized that positive social relations predict stronger attachment to university, which in turn predicts more positive academic motivations. Adult attachment and home attachment were added to the model for exploratory purpose. A total of 226 university students taking the Introductory Psychology course at the University of Pittsburgh were used to test the hypothesized model. Results confirmed the hypothesized model. The results yielded practical implications for understanding students’ social and academic lives. The study also contributed to the validation of the place attachment measure being developed by the researcher.