Research training interventions and undergraduate sense of belonging in the first year of college

• Employing propensity scores to create balanced groups of student participants and a control group (controlling for selection effects), multivariate analysis revealed that students involved in the training program had a higher sense of belonging in college than the control group. • students’ mentoring experiences explain variation in sense of belonging attributable to the program and suggest that mentorship in the first year contributes to student sense of belonging. • This study supports the value of early research training programs that offer mentorship to support first year aspirants in natural and social sciences to enhance sense of belonging on campus. Undergraduate research programs are often structured to provide support and professional development, with the aim of encouraging and sustaining diverse trainees’ sense of belonging and their retention in science majors. To assess the effect of science training interventions, data from the National Institutes of Health-sponsored initiative Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) were used to document students’ sense of belonging in the first year of college. We used propensity scores to create balanced groups among student participants and a control group at four universities (N=1,223). After controlling for selection effects, multiple regression analyses revealed that students involved in the training program reported a significantly higher sense of belonging in college than the control group (p