Alienation in dormitory life

Abstract

The influence of college on students has been widely investigated in recent years and some attention has been given to the impact of living units on residents. Dormitories represent an important component of the college environment that can be described quantitatively in terms of dimensions that can influence the attitudes and behavior of students. This influence is believed to be mediated by the interactions of persons with different environmental situations, and can be observed in relation to a wide range of overt and covert reactions among residents. The present study focused on one type of reaction which is believed to be theoretically important and also salient in the campus community selected for this research. This is the phenomenon of alienation. As reflected in the literature reviewed on college influence, dormitory effects related to alienation have not previously been subjected to empirical investigation. The present study was concerned with alienation from the dormitory among college residents in four different dormitory environments represented by: Greek, Independent, Program, and Living-learning dormitories. The similarities and differences among the four dormitory types were investigated with respect to three data sets: (1) dormitory environments measured along nine dimensions, (2) two classes of person variables composed of seven college attitudes and behavior composites, and four background variable composites, and (3) an alienation scale which measured isolation, normlessness, and powerlessness. A questionnaire was administered to the residents of seven dormitories which made up the four dormitory types; a total of 413 usable questionnaires was obtained and retained for analysis. It was empirically established that the four dormitory types differed with respect to environmental characteristics, person characteristics, and level of alienation. Several informative relationships were obtained among the alienation measures and the person and environmental variables. A significant proportion of the variance in the alienation scores was accounted for separately by each set of person variables and by the environmental measures; however, the greatest proportion of variance was accounted for by the combined effects of the person measures and the environmental measures. This result provided strong empirical support for an approach in which the components of person measures and environmental measures were integrated. This exploratory study also provided information which has practical implications for the design of dormitory programs that are predicted to increase satisfaction and decrease alienation among the residents. The study also provided interesting suggestions for further, more specifically focused investigations of alienation in dormitory life.