Effects of distance from home to campus on undergraduate place attachment and university experience in China

First-year students in transition from hometown to campus are generally confronted by intellectual and social challenges as well as disruption and the formation of the place attachments associated with relocation. Understanding the variables affecting student place attachment helps address the widespread concern about student transition. Interactions between place attachment to hometown and campus, and the effects of endogenous and exogenous variables on place attachments, were analysed using covariance analysis, based on questionnaire data gathered at a Chinese university. Campus identity acts as a predictor for the other three dimensions of place attachment to hometown and campus: hometown identity, hometown dependence and campus dependence. Place attachment to campus exerts a direct effect on place attachment to hometown, while the latter indirectly impacts on the former through mediators including academic self-efficacy and peer relationships. Gender, household registration record and duration of dormitory stay were also identified as statistically significant predictors of student place attachment.