Examining How Interactions Contribute to Thriving for Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Living-Learning Community Students

Interactions across campus have long been documented as an important component of understanding the college student experience. This is especially salient in relation to interactions with faculty and peers during a student's first year, when susceptibility for departure is high. However, it is likewise critical to understand how distinctive types of interactions with various constituents inform the experience of sophomore, junior, and senior college students. The purpose of this study was to examine a theoretical model of the relationships between various interaction factors hypothesized to predict student success in college, as operationalized in the construct of thriving. A survey research design was utilized to collect data for this study from sophomore, junior, and senior living-learning community students at eight large research institutions in four states. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine the relationship between eight interaction variables and five thriving variables. The final model indicated acceptable fit (CFI > 0.90, RMSEA < 0.06) and explained between 30 and 53% of the variance across thriving factors. Additionally, results indicated that individual interactions are able to predict student thriving in unique and significant ways with varying effect sizes. Recommendations from these findings for housing professionals are also discussed. [The discussion questions at the close of this article were developed by Drew Johnson.]