“Belonging” in the Biomedical Research Industry: Too Vague to Achieve or Too Important Not to Pursue?

Where Can We Start?

This article is a part of the DEI Resource Highlight series. 

Receiving an invitation to a co-worker’s child’s high school graduation party or informal happy hour. Acquiring information about how to navigate the promotion process for your current role. Gaining access to resources to ensure success in personal and professional pursuits via a confidant who doubles as a sponsor. These are examples of actions that support belonging. 

According to a 2021 journal article titled Belonging: A Review of Conceptual Issues, an Integrative Framework, and Directions for Future Research, belonging is defined as a subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences. To help lessen ambiguity around what belonging is, why it is integral to success, and how we can all help foster environments that encourage deep connection, researchers conducted a narrative review, summarizing existing perspectives on belonging to help inform a new integrative framework for understanding and studying belonging.

Group of people sitting on stairs
Literature shows that women from racial and ethnic groups shown to be underrepresented in health-related sciences, women with disabilities, and women from disadvantaged backgrounds face particular challenges at the graduate level and beyond in scientific fields.

The four components of belonging that comprise the integrative framework are: 

  1. Competencies for belonging (skills and abilities); 
  2. Opportunities to belong (enablers, removal/reduction of barriers); 
  3. Motivations to belong (inner drive); and 
  4. Perceptions of belonging (cognitions, attributions, and feedback mechanisms – positive or negative experiences when connecting). 

Think about how the four components of belonging might apply to the biomedical research industry. 

  • What skills and abilities are essential to growth in the field–across various roles and levels? (e.g., read Association for Clinical Research Professionals Competency Domains
  • What are some of the barriers that preclude the biomedical research industry from being as diverse, inclusive, equitable, and accessible as it could be? (e.g., read Barriers to Inclusion of Individuals with Disabilities in the Scientific Workforce
  • Based on responses to the above questions, is it reasonable to believe that someone could thrive in an environment if they aren’t equipped with skills and abilities required for performance and supported as they navigate barriers? (e.g., watch this Tedx talk by author and journalist Caroline Clarke titled The Essential Power of Belonging
  • Are your perceptions of belonging overriding feedback received from individuals who are typically underrepresented in the biomedical research community? (e.g., read What Microaggressions Are and How to Prevent Them)
This figure illustrates the integrative framework for understanding, assessing, and fostering belonging. (Allen et al., 2021)
This figure illustrates the integrative framework for understanding, assessing, and fostering belonging. (Allen et al., 2021)

Reflection

  1. Think of some examples in your life where you’ve felt a deep connection with a social group, physical place, and/or individual or collective experience. Contrast those memories with experiences where you didn’t feel that deep connection. 
  2. How can you use your resources, power, and influence to cultivate environments where everyone on your team can equitably thrive beyond performance–accessing feelings of belonging? 
  3. What are three things you can do today to help execute elements of the new integrative framework for understanding and studying belonging? 

Recommended Reading