Striking Finding #6

6

UCSC Student Data Reports Insignificant Correlation between Housing Insecurity and Academic Performance

PSYC100_Finding 6.pdf

With rising rates of housing insecurity in Santa Cruz County, individuals have been struggling to find stable and affordable housing, including students who may be seeing an impact on their academic performance (Georgetown University, 2023; County of Santa Cruz, 2023). To test the correlation between Housing Insecurity and Academic Performance, researchers administered a survey via Qualtrics to 188 undergraduate students enrolled in a Research Methods in Psychology course at UCSC during the Fall 2023 quarter. Students were given a 45-minute window to complete the survey. Survey content included items measuring Housing Insecurity (rent burden, hostile living environment, additional home expenses, accessibility to campus, and housing safety) and Academic Performance (attendance, engagement, and self-reported GPA). The results showed no significant correlation between Housing Insecurity and Academic Performance. This differed from our original hypothesis and previous research on the relationship.



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Student Researchers

Stefany Miranda Mendoza, Lea Chernyavsky, Jordan Freyre, Rina Dmytrenko, Paulina Monge, Narissa Carthy-Dundas, Ysabella Moran Jordan, Divija Keswani, Emily Cuya, Aubrienne Blackwell, Elina Chiong, Raquel Mardones, Lola Kitchell, Joey Finch, Irlanda Suarez, Elyse Maresca, Miranda Hammon, Angelina Flum, Max Bentley, Dean Brown, Kamari Villegas, Jessica Wujcik-Penzo, Shikai Gong, Sebastian Valdez, Jacky Sandoval

Relevant References

County of Santa Cruz (2023). Housing Dashboard. https://www.santacruzcountyca.gov/Departments/CountyAdministrativeOffice/HousingProgress


Georgetown University (2023). Students confront housing dilemmas, homelessness as UC system faces housing shortage. THE FEED. https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/students-confront-housing-dilemmas-ho melessness-as-uc-system-faces-housing-shortage/


Greenburg, M., McKay, S., Sirigotis, J., Le, T., (2021). No Place Like Home: Affordable Housing in Crisis, Santa Cruz County, CA, UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation. https://transform.ucsc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/No_Place_Like_Home_Report_2 021.pdf


Kornbluh, M., Wilking, J., Roll, S., & Donatello, R. (2022). Exploring housing insecurity in relation to student success. Journal of American College Health, doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2068016


National Low Income Housing Coalition, (2023), Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing. https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/2023_OOR.pdf