RESEARCH NOTE | Coming Back Together Matters: Housing Program Attendance and Personal Interactions

[mattvenaas]

Coming back together matters! The social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant fewer interactions with peers and as a result, fewer opportunities to learn important social interaction skills essential to living in a community. These skills are among those realized through intentional programming in on-campus residential living.

Using a national dataset constructed from the 2021-2022 administration of Skyfactor’s ACUHO-I/Benchworks Resident Assessment of over 150,000 college students from nearly 200 colleges and universities in the United States, findings show that higher levels of program participation were associated with greater perceived gains in four key skills needed to survive and thrive in a community setting.