The Sense of Belonging to the Country: Integrative Relationships and Spatiotemporal Commitment

Abstract

The satisfaction of the need to belong reflects in the sense of being an integrative part of the group or social system. There is some lack of empirical evidence for the structure of this sense at the macro level. This study assessed a two-dimensional model of the sense of belonging to the country, which included relational and spatiotemporal components. Participants were 539 university students from 18 to 50 (74% females). Questions regarding involvement, perceived acceptance, sense of commonality, and feeling at home represented the relational component of the sense of belonging. Four temporal categories—the recent past, present, and the near and distant future—were included in the assessment of its spatiotemporal component. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed an acceptable fit of the two-factor model. Its convergent validity was demonstrated by the association with an explicit single-item measure of belonging. The predictive effect of the spatiotemporal component emphasized the importance of continuity of belonging in considering emigration. In sum, the results confirmed the complexity of the sense of belonging to the country and the interconnectedness of integrative relationships and spatiotemporal commitment and revealed functional differences between them.

Sense of country: General and specific factors covary with social identification and predict emigration plans

“…The Cronbach's alpha score for this scale was 0.91. As demonstrated in a previous study (Kolesovs, 2021), residuals of having plans and their fulfillment correlated.…”

“…Spatiotemporal Commitment also included a concurrent psychological construct. In predicting emigration, the effect of a specific component was concordant with the general factor's effect and confirmed its significance in considering emigration (Kolesovs, 2021). The specific factor can represent the continuity of belonging in time at a different level of social system.…”

“…There is empirical evidence for transferring the aforementioned components to the national level. Membership reflects a sense of belonging and relatedness, which is also significant at the national level (Dekel and Nuttman-Shwartz, 2009 ; Hou et al, 2018 ; Kolesovs, 2021 ). Influence integrates personal and group impacts on the system and its members (McMillan and Chavis, 1986 ).…”

“…Shared Emotional Connection refers to shared history, current events, and investment in the future of a community, united with emotional and spiritual bonds with people in the neighborhood. It reflects the complexity of shared connections, including current relationships and views of the past and future, forming continuity in time (Sani et al, 2008 ; David and Bar-Tal, 2009 ; Kolesovs, 2021 ).…”

Sharing the Space With the “Victim” Can Increase Help Rates. A Study With Virtual Reality

“…The effect of belonging to the same spatial formation on social identity is not explored directly in our study but is consistent with its findings and the tenets of social categorization theory, as explained in the introduction. The role of spatial boundaries in identifying an ingroup could also account for other reported phenomena, such as the sense of belonging to an environment and the related loyalty and affection to it ( Kolesovs, 2021 ) or the pro-social behavior in people synchronizing their movements in space and time to a common rhythm ( Cross et al, 2019 ).…”