The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1 - 77

Living Arrangement, Gender, and Outcomes

arrangement varies as a function of the gender
of the respondent; speciﬁcally, on-campus
housing appears to be a better residential environment for supporting the academic success
of college men. The non-signiﬁcant difference between women and men who lived in
on-campus housing supports this claim that
living environments affect their academic performance differently. The ﬁnding expands our
understanding of the relationship between a
student's academic performance, living arrangement, and gender. Previous research
has explored the difference in academic performance of college students by living arrangement (Kuder, 1972; Nicpon et al., 2006;
Terenzini et al., 1999) and gender (DeBard &
Sacks, 2010; McCluskey-Titus & Oliver, 2001;
Wielkiewicz et al., 2005) separately, but no
studies explored the possibility of an interaction between the two characteristics.

IMPLICATIONS
Overall, the study revealed differences in the
experiences of college students in terms of
living arrangement and gender. An interaction
effect for the cumulative GPA of the respondents in terms of gender and living arrangement was also present. These ﬁndings have
several implications for practice and research.

Implications for Practice
There are several important implications of
these ﬁndings that professionals can use to
improve the student experience in both onand off-campus housing.

Promote active engagement within oncampus housing. The results revealed that
students who resided on campus were less
satisﬁed with the programming they received

Findings indicate that the impact
of the living arrangement varies as
a function of the gender of
the respondent; speciﬁcally,

supporting the academic success of
college men.

and reported less peer interaction than did
their peers who resided in fraternity/sorority housing. Since involving residents in the
planning of programs and events might increase satisfaction (Ogletree et al., 2005),
housing ofﬁcers and resident assistants
should create more intentional opportunities
for engagement and interaction. For example,
a resident assistant could collaborate with a
resident interested in social justice in planning a cultural awareness program. This approach might have the secondary effect of
teaching residents transferable skills pertaining to event management, interpersonal relations, and time management.

Encourage students to review their academic behaviors. Nearly half of the respondents dedicated 10 hours or less per week to
studying, which is below the recommended
standard of studying two to three hours per
hour spent in class (Rooney & Reardon, 2009).
Administrators should encourage residents
to review their academic behaviors by having
residents reﬂect on how they spend their time,
their note-taking style, in what conditions they
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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 40, No. 2 & Volume 41, No. 1