The Contribution of Personal Resources (Self-Esteem, Sense of mastery, and Leadership Competence) and Social Resources (Sense of Belonging to the Community and Social Support) to Well-being among Students who Take Part in the Student Villages Program

In recent years, student villages have become a growing phenomenon in Israel. These villages are established in cities and neighborhoods with low socioeconomic statuses, and the students who reside in these villages lead community lives, and participate in social activism, while completing their academic degrees. The villages have two main goals: 1) To strengthen the neighborhood's image and its local residents, and promote their sense of belonging to the community, and 2) To empower the students by creating active and socially responsible leadership, and strengthen their connection to the city or neighborhood (Ayalim, 2020; Yachad B’Ariel, 2019; Kedma, 2020; Totzeret Haaretz, 2020).

The current study examined the personal resources (self-esteem, sense of mastery, and leadership competency) and social resources (sense of belonging and social support) of students living in student villages, and the contribution of these resources to the students’ well-being.

This study relied on two theories: social capital theory and social systems theory. Social capital theory distinguishes between personal and social capital (Shina, 2002; Talmud and Brat, 2003), and provides the rationale for selecting specific variables and the associations between them. In this study, personal capital was represented by self-esteem, sense of mastery, and leadership competency. Social capital was represented by sense of belonging to the community and social support.

Social systems theory defines the general structure of the theoretical model. According to this theory, individuals and communities are considered to be systems that interact with the environment. Each system is divided into three levels: inputs, throughputs, and outputs. Inputs are processed at the throughputs level, and the throughputs affect the outputs (Ben Tzur, 2004).

When we look at an individual as a system, the inputs include background variables and personal resources (self-esteem, sense of mastery, and leadership competency in the present study), and the throughputs include social resources (sense of belonging and social support in the present study) (Yanuv, 1992; Samuel, 1996). The output, in the case of the current study, was well-being.

The research hypotheses were that positive correlations would be found between personal/social resources and personal well-being (i.e., the higher the level of personal and social resources, the higher the personal well-being). In addition, we hypothesized that the higher the level of personal resources, the higher the social resources would be. The study also examined whether social variables would mediate the association between personal variables and personal well-being.

The study, a cross-sectional survey conducted at one timepoint, employed a quantitative correlational method. Participants comprised 300 students from all over the country who were taking part in the student village program. Data were collected via questionnaire, and a convenience sampling method was used to draw the study sample. 

The study results showed that both personal and social resources had a significant positive relationship with personal well-being. A significant positive relationship was also found between most personal resources and social resources, with the exception of sense of mastery, which was not significantly related to sense of belonging to the community, contrary to the researcher's expectation.

Interestingly, an indirect effect was found between self-esteem and well-being through social support. In addition, an indirect effect was found between leadership and well-being through sense of belonging to the community and through social support. No direct effect between leadership and social resources was found.

This finding indicates that the sense of belonging to the community belonging and social support variables provided full mediation in the association between leadership and well-being.

The discussion provides explanations and interpretations of the findings, including those that confirm the hypotheses, those that partially confirm the hypotheses, and those that do not confirm the hypotheses.

This pioneering research expands the knowledge on an innovative project that has not yet been researched, and makes it possible to examine the contribution of personal and social resources to personal well-being among students living and volunteering in distressed areas. Understanding the factors that contribute to these students' personal well-being will enable a better selection process of students for this program, and an improved development of the training they undergo.

The research also contributes to the development of knowledge on community social work and its practice by examining community activists in distressed areas, and the impact sense of community belonging and social support have on their personal well-being. It may also help community social workers explore the further development of student villages and other similar frameworks.