LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 1

An Analysis of the University of South Carolina’s LGBTQ+ Undergraduate Population:

Perceptions of Campus Climate and How it May be Linked to Academic Success

Anna Criswell

Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina

PSYC 221-009: Research Methods in Psychology

Dr. Goran Pavlov

April 20, 2023

LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 2

Abstract

Support and inclusivity on college campuses are a priority for most, if not all

undergraduate students, especially for marginalized groups such as the LGBTQ+ community.

While most universities have become more progressive about inclusivity and support, negativity

and harassment are still prominent on campuses. Researchers have noted that campus climate

may have an effect on LGBTQ+ students’ academic success. However, this research is few and

far in between with many gaps in the literature. To help close these gaps and address concerns,

the current study, explores the question of how the LGBTQ+ undergraduate population’s

perception of campus climate might be linked to their academic success. This study uses a

mixed-methods approach to explore LGBTQ+ students vs. non-LGBTQ+ students’ perceptions

of campus climate and its effect on academic success. The findings of this study indicate that

there a significant difference between LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ students’ perceptions and

academic success. Further research is needed to explore this relationship further to hopefully aid

in university support and inclusivity for the LGBTQ+ community.

Keywords: LGBTQ+; undergraduate students; campus climate; academic success; mixed

methods
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Introduction

When future University students are exploring campuses they might be interested in

attending, one of the biggest questions they want answered is “How is the campus climate here at

the University?”. Students what a university that is inclusive, aware, and passionate about their

students. More often than not, students find themselves questioning campus climate and their

perceptions about how inclusive and involved campus is with their students. With that being said,

negative perceptions of campus climate could affect other aspects of university life. One

particular aspect being academic success. Could perceptions of campus climate be linked to

academic success? If so, are there certain populations that could be affected more than others?

One of the many marginalized groups on campus is the LGBTQ+ community. While most

universities have begun to implement inclusive organizations and services for this community.

There is still so much research that could be done on this community, especially as

undergraduate students. With that being said, the overarching question of this research project

addresses how the LGBTQ+ undergraduate population’s perception of campus climate might be

linked to their academic success.

Literature Review

This area of research is complex. There are so many hypotheses to be made about the

undergraduate LGBTQ+ community when it comes to how they perceive climate and perform

academically. The research on this marginalized group is broad and at some points unclear. Most

of the literature has found that LGBTQ+ are more likely to view campus climate negatively

(Garvey et al., 2018; Amodeo et al., 2020; Kosciw et al., 2013; Tetreault et al., 2013; Rankin et

al., 2019). However, there is a dearth of literature attempting to correlate or link other variables

to the LGBTQ+ undergraduate population. In an article titled “The impact of campus climate on
LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 4

queer-spectrum students”, a survey was designed to ask undergraduate “queer-spectrum”

students, or rather, individuals who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, certain questions

regarding campus climate and academic success (Garvey et al., 2018). The findings from this

study opened up future research in this area. According to Garvey et al. (2018), there is still a

heavy lack of research linking LGBTQ+ students to academic success (p. 101). This study is just

one step into a more inclusive direction for campuses throughout the U.S. However, this article

specifically does not compare LGBTQ+ students’ perceptions with non-LGBTQ+ students’

perceptions, which would aid in better understanding where and how to incorporate more

inclusive climates for these students. Interestingly, Rankin et al.’s study measured academic

impediments such as depression, stress, drugs, etc. (p. 447). Rankin et al. implemented different

facts that my affect academics, however, perceptions of campus climate were not brought up.

Because this research is so new, there are many gaps in the literature that need to be addressed.

In order to undertake some of these gaps, this study address 3 hypotheses. (1) Undergraduate

students who have more positive perceptions of campus climate from their undergraduate

campuses are more academically successful. (2) LGBTQ+ students have different levels of

academic success than non-LGBTQ+ students. (3) LGBTQ+ students will have lower positive

perceptions of campus climate for the LGBTQ+ community than non-LGBTQ+ students.

Methods

An online survey curated on google forms was developed to analyze University of South

Carolina undergraduate LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ students’ perceptions of campus climate

and how that may be linked to their academic success. This survey took place in March-April

2023.

Participants
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Participants for this study were eligible to participate if they were a current undergraduate

student at the University of South Carolina. This study had a total of 41 participants that met the

eligibility requirements (N=41). Of the 41 participants 87.8% identified as female, 9.8%

identified as male, and 2.4% identified as Agender, genderfluid, or non-binary. The average age

of participants was 20 years old. Additionally, 68.3% of participants identified as White, 4.9%

identified as Black or African American, 14.6% identified as Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% identified

as Asian/Pacific Islander, and 2.4% identified as Native American/Native Alaskan. The most

reported class year were sophomores. Moreover, these participants were recruited by sending out

the survey to my PSYC 221 and PSYC 405 classes as well as sending out my survey to the

service organization I am in. In other words, I used convenience sampling for this study.

Materials/Measures

Measure 1: Sexual Identity

The first measure is a compilation of two questions that first ask if the participants are a

part of the LGBTQ+ community. This is a simple “yes or no” question with the sum split into a

percentage. The second question asks the participants “what they identify as”. The format of this

question was set up for participants to check the answer(s) that most closely applied to them.

Once again, the question is scored with sum split into a percentage for each category.

Measure 2: Perceptions of Campus Climate

The second measure is formatted as an 11-point Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 10

(strongly agree). There is a total of ten questions asking the participants various questions

regarding their perceptions of how campus considers the LGBTQ+ community. For example,

“The University is inclusive towards my identity”. The questions are scored based off of the sum
LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 6

of the points per question. Each question will then be averaged based off the of the overall

responses of all participants.

Measure 3: Academic Success

The third measure is formatted for participants to check the answer(s) that most closely

applies to their academic success. There are a total of three questions. The first question asks

participants to check all the boxes that apply to their academic self-efficacy. The second question

asks participants to check all the boxes that apply to their academic achievement. For example,

“I have earned scholarships for my achievements”. The third question is an open-response

question asking for the participants’ estimated GPA. Question 1 and 2 are both scored based off

of how many boxes the participants check (each check box is one point). The more boxes

checked, the higher the academic success. The third question is scored by averaging the GPA per

group (LGBTQ+ students vs. non-LGBTQ+ students).

Procedure

This survey was administered to one PSYC 405 class and one PSYC 221 class through

the app, GroupMe. A link to the survey was sent into the message app, GroupMe to a total of 96

undergraduate students. The survey had a total of six sections. The first section provided the

participants with a detailed consent form that included contact information if they had any

questions regarding the study. Participants were asked for their consent in order for them to

proceed. The second section collected the participants’ demographics. Participants were asked

about their age, gender, race, and class level. The third section included the first measure, which

asked about their sexual identity. The fourth section included the second measure which asked

about their perceptions of campus climate towards the LGBTQ+ Community. The fifth section

included the third measure which asked about their academic success at the University. Finally,
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the sixth section provided the participants with a detailed debriefing where participants were

insured that this survey would be anonymous. The participants were asked to read the debriefing

thoroughly. As stated above, Participants accessed this survey through a link that I provided. This

survey was conducted on Google Forms. This survey took approximately two minutes to

complete.

Results

In order to understand whether positive perceptions of campus climate increase academic

success, a Person correlation analysis was conducted to determine whether there was relationship

between the University of South Carolina’s students’ perception of campus climate (M = 30.51,

SD = 10.83) and their academic achievements (M= 8.17, SD = 2.32). Results suggest a

significant negative, r (39) = -.387, p = .012, two-tailed relationship. These results lead us to

believe that as the students’ negative perception of campus climate increases, their academic

achievements decrease and vice versa. It is to be kept in mind that perceptions of campus climate

were reverse coded meaning the higher the score, the more negatively campus climate is viewed.

Figure 1 depicts this analysis as a scatter plot.

Figure 1
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Furthermore, a two-tailed, independent samples t-test was conducted to determine

whether the 14 LGBTQ+ students (M = 7.14, SD = 2.71) compared to the 27 non-LGBTQ+

students (M = 8.70, SD = 1.94) had lower results of academic achievement. Results indicated

that non-LGBTQ+ students had significant higher academic achievement than LGBTQ+ students

t (39) = 2.129, p <.05. The figure below depicts this analysis as a bar graph (1 = LGBTQ+, 2 =

non-LGBTQ+).

Figure 2

Lastly, A two-tailed, independent samples t-test was conducted to determine whether the

14 LGBTQ+ students (M = 38.21, SD = 6.48) compared to the 27 non-LGBTQ+ students (M =

26.52, SD = 10.53) had lower positive perceptions of campus climate. Results indicated that

LGBTQ+ students do have lower positive perceptions of campus climate t (39) = 3.787, P <

.001. The figure below depicts the analysis as a bar graph (1 = LGBTQ+, 2 = non-LGBTQ+).
LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 9

Figure 3

Discussion

This study indicated that negative perceptions are liked to lower academic success and

vice versa. Second, the study also indicated that LGBTQ+ students had lower results of academic

success than non-LGBTQ+ students. Lastly, the study also indicated that LGBTQ+ students have

lower positive perceptions of campus climate than non-LGBTQ+ students. With that being said,

these results support all three hypotheses, rejecting the null hypotheses. The significance of these

results helps support the theories of Garvey et al., and Tetreault et al. Which in turn,

strengthening the reason and need for future research for this topic.

Strengths, Limitations, & Implications

This study had a high turnout for completion of the survey with a variety of individuals

participating. The high turnout allowed for more generalizability of University of South Carolina

students. However, this can also be a limitation. This study only focused on a sample of

undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina rather than from multiple universities,

which could affect the results. Additionally, there may be weak internal validity due to the
LGBTQ+ PERCEPTIONS OF CAMPUS CLIMATE & ACADEMIC SUCCESS 10

convivence sampling that was performed. The sample was sent to students who had some kind of

connection to me, the researcher. Lastly, the findings of this research support the claim that

positive perceptions of campus climate increase academic success. Given that these findings or

supported, it is important that campuses find ways to become more inclusive and supportive of

LGBTQ+ students. Better prevention tactics should be implemented as well to help with the

decrease of negative perceptions of campus climate. With all that being said, future research

should explore this topic. Larger study samples, diversity of gender and sexual identity should all

be implemented in future studies.

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References

Amodeo, A. L., Esposito, C., Esposito, C., & Bacchii, D. (2020). Sexual minority status,

anxiety–depression, and academic outcomes: The role of campus climate perceptions

among Italian higher education students. Behavioral Sciences, 10(12), 179.

https://doi.org/10.3390/bs10120179

Garvey, J. C., Squire, D. D., Statler, B., & Rankin, S. (2018). The impact of campus climate on

queer-spectrum student academic success. Journal of LGBT Youth, 15(2), 89–105.

https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2018.1429978

Kosciw, J. G., Palmer, N. A., Kull, R. M., & Greytak, E. A. (2012). The effect of negative school

climate on academic outcomes for LGBT youth and the role of in-school supports. Journal

of School Violence, 12(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/15388220.2012.732546

Rankin, S., Garvey, J. C., & Duran, A. (2019). A retrospective of LGBT issues on US college

campuses: 1990–2020. International Sociology, 34(4), 435–454.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0268580919851429

Tetreault, P. A., Fette, R., Meidlinger, P. C., & Hope, D. (2013). Perceptions of campus climate

by sexual minorities. Journal of Homosexuality, 60(7), 947–964.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2013.774874