Sense of belonging in higher education contributes to students' wellbeing and academic attainment. However, there is ambiguity about the definition and measurement of sense of belonging in higher education, and it is unclear how these definitions and measures are used in diverse student populations in terms of ethnicity and generation status in higher education. In this systematic review we investigated how students' sense of belonging in higher education is defined and measured and how this differs in studies addressing students' ethnicity or generation status in higher education. 89 quantitative, 55 qualitative, and 6 mixed method articles published between 2000 and 2021 were included, critically analyzed through an integrative approach, and their quality was appraised. Results revealed (a) a large variety in underlying concepts used to define of sense of belonging in higher education, including additional concepts from qualitative studies, (b) 52 separate used measures, and (c) misalignment between definitions and measures in quantitative studies. There was a substantial difference in cited definitions and used measures between studies that did and did not address students' ethnicity or generation status in higher education. Furthermore, from the findings it is implied to be explicit about the HE context in which sense of belonging is studied or focused on, alongside the deliberate inclusion of students’ representative intersecting identities.

中文翻译：

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高等教育归属感的定义和测量：系统文献综述，特别关注高等教育中学生的种族和代际地位


高等教育的归属感有助于学生的福祉和学业成就。然而，高等教育归属感的定义和测量存在模糊性，并且尚不清楚这些定义和测量如何在高等教育中的种族和代际地位的不同学生群体中使用。在这篇系统综述中，我们调查了如何定义和衡量学生在高等教育中的归属感，以及这与解决学生在高等教育中的种族或代际地位的研究有何不同。纳入了 2000 年至 2021 年间发表的 89 篇定量文章、55 篇定性文章和 6 篇混合方法文章，通过综合方法进行批判性分析，并对其质量进行了评估。结果显示，(a) 用于定义高等教育归属感的基本概念存在很大差异，包括来自定性研究的其他概念；(b) 52 种单独使用的衡量标准；以及 (c) 定量研究中的定义和衡量标准之间的不一致。涉及和未涉及高等教育中学生种族或代际地位的研究之间，所引用的定义和使用的衡量标准存在重大差异。此外，从研究结果来看，这意味着要明确研究或关注归属感的高等教育背景，同时有意纳入学生代表性的交叉身份。