The Role of Academic Validation in Developing Mattering and Academic Success

We use survey data from three four-year campuses to explore the relationship between academic validation and student outcomes during students’ first 3 years in college using structural equation modeling. We examine both a psychosocial outcome (mattering to campus) and an academic outcome (cumulative GPA). We find that both frequency of interactions with faculty and feelings of academic validation from faculty are positively related to students’ feelings of mattering to campus and cumulative GPA in their third year. Our results suggest that academic validation, beyond the frequency of faculty–student interactions, is an important predictor of students’ psychosocial and academic success.