The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1 - 85

Socially Responsible Leadership in RAs

and environmental factors (i.e., the diverse
experiences that a student will encounter in
college). Inputs are considered in conjunction with the environment in order to measure
changes in student development (Astin, 1970).
The I-E-O model was used as the conceptual
framework to guide the present study. Institutional environments, in conjunction with
student inputs, are presumed to directly and
indirectly impact the outcomes (Astin, 1970).
For this study, an instrument derived from the

Other student leaders were defined
as self-identified "peer helpers" due
to having levels of responsibility
similar to (but not analogous with)
those of RAs. Peer helpers-such as
peer counselors, peer educators,
and tutors-are defined as student
leaders who are selected to receive
training in order to provide some
type of educational support to their
fellow students.

SCM was used to measure student outcomes.
Inputs included pre-college leadership capabilities related to each of the seven C's. Environmental factors encompassed aspects of higher
education institutions such as opportunities
for student involvement, and the outputs were

demonstrated socially responsible leadership
values as defined by the SCM-namely, the
specific variables under study.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore RAs'
demonstration of socially responsible leadership and to examine whether this cohort evidenced different values (as measured by the
SCM) in comparison to other student leaders
(OSLs). This study was designed to answer the
following questions:
1. To what extent do the seven values of the
SCM predict whether a student is an RA or
an OSL?
2. After controlling for pre-college levels of
each of the seven SCM values, are there
differences in SCM scores between RAs
and OSLs?

Sampling Procedures
The Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership
(MSL) is an extensive research study that utilizes the SCM to measure leadership abilities
in college students. The study includes scales
measuring leadership abilities according to
each of the seven C's of the Social Change
Model (MSL, 2011). The data for this study
were requested and received from the principal investigator for the 2012 iteration of the
MSL. Each participating institution submitted a sample of 4,000 students-or the entire
student body's data if total enrollment was
less than 4,000. The population consisted of
276,853 student participants, of which a total of
91,559 provided usable results (33.1% response
rate). Types of institutions included large flagship institutions, regional state institutions,
community colleges, and non-sectarian and
religiously affiliated large and small private inV O L U M E 4 6 , NO. 1 * 2 0 1 9

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1

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