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Being Here and Now: The Benefits of Belonging in Space and Time

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Abstract

Research suggests that a sense of belonging is a critical prerequisite of happiness and well-being. While some have focused on belonging provided by relationships, other work demonstrates the value of belonging in certain places. In the current research we join these efforts to understand belonging by offering a novel framework for exploring an understudied but no less fundamental aspect of human experience—time. We situate this framework within an existential analysis of human action and test general predictions about the psychological value of experiencing a sense of belonging in time, what we call temporal rootedness. Two samples (Studies 1 and 2) collected across cultures provide converging evidence that temporal rootedness is a unique psychological phenomenon that is predictive of personal psychological well-being. Two additional experiments (Studies 3 and 4) offer promising evidence that temporal rootedness can be situationally induced and threatened with consequences for well-being. These findings demonstrate the potential value of further exploration into this sense of belonging.

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Notes

  1. Nineteen participants did not indicate their age and 18 participants did not complete the remaining demographics items. Thus, the reported sample characteristics do not reflect the entire sample included in primary analyses.

  2. The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) assesses the extent to which a model misrepresents the observed data, with 0 being the theoretical ideal (i.e., a perfect model), .05 reflecting a good fit, and any value below .08 reflecting acceptable fit. The Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) reflects the extent to which the covariances in the model differ from those in the full data, and here any value below .10 is considered acceptable. The Comparative Fit Index (CFI) assesses the extent to which the specified model improves upon a baseline model in which observed variables are assumed to be independent: values above .90 are considered to have reasonably good fit. The Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), also known as the Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI), is similar to the CFI except that it adjusts for model complexity; again, a value greater than .90 is considered a good degree of fit.

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Acknowledgements

The funding was provided by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Grant No. MU 1500/10-1).

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Room 524 McCarty Hall C, Gainesville, FL, 32603, USA

    Matthew Baldwin

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, USA

    Lucas A. Keefer

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Baldwin, M., Keefer, L.A. Being Here and Now: The Benefits of Belonging in Space and Time. J Happiness Stud 21, 3069–3093 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00214-7

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