The advice given to a lonely college student often sounds simple:
Get involved.
Join a club.
Go to campus events.
Volunteer.
Play an intramural sport.
Meet more people.
There is good reason behind that advice. Social connection and belonging matter for well-being, and student organizations can create places where friendships, routines and shared identities develop.
But there is an important difference between being connected and being constantly involved.
New U.S. research involving more than 78,000 college students at 125 institutions suggests that the relationship between student-organization participation and mental health is more complicated than “more is always better.”
Researchers Brandy Reeves-Doyle of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Olutosin Sanyaolu of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and Karly Scott-Hillis Geller of Miami University analyzed data from the Spring 2023 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment III.
Their study, accepted on August 19, 2026 and published in Frontiers in Education, examined student-organization involvement alongside belonging, loneliness and psychological distress.
Among the more than 78,000 students surveyed, 88.3% reported a sense of belonging, while 50.8% reported loneliness. More than half—52.4%—reported no student-organization involvement.
Greater involvement was generally associated with greater belonging and modestly lower loneliness. But the pattern for psychological distress was not simply linear. Distress was lower at low-to-moderate levels of involvement and increased slightly at the highest levels.
The finding does not establish that joining many organizations causes psychological distress. The researchers analyzed cross-sectional survey data, meaning participation and mental-health measures were assessed rather than experimentally assigned.
Still, the results support a more realistic message for students:
Connection can help. Turning connection into another achievement contest may not.
Belonging And Busyness Are Not The Same Thing
College campuses provide an extraordinary number of ways to participate.
Academic societies.
Student government.
Cultural organizations.
Volunteer groups.
Sports.
Faith communities.
Music and theater.
Professional associations.
Fraternities and sororities.
Identity-based organizations.
Political groups.
Outdoor clubs.
Campus media.
For a student struggling to make friends, that variety can be useful. An organization provides something that unstructured socializing often does not: a reason to be in the same place with the same people repeatedly.
Friendship does not have to begin with walking into a room and immediately finding someone fascinating.
It can develop because two people keep arriving at the same Tuesday-night meeting.
The new 2026 study supports the potential value of participation. Belonging generally increased as organization involvement increased, although the benefit plateaued at higher levels of participation.
That plateau matters.
It suggests that involvement and belonging should not be treated like points on a scoreboard.
A student does not necessarily become twice as connected by joining twice as many organizations.
More Than Half Of Students Reported Feeling Lonely
One of the most striking findings is that 50.8% of participants reported loneliness, even though 88.3% reported a sense of belonging.
At first glance, those numbers might appear contradictory.
They are not necessarily.
Belonging and loneliness measure related but different experiences.
A student can believe they belong at their university and still feel lonely on Friday night.
They can have classmates and teammates but lack someone they trust with personal problems.
They can participate in a club while wishing their relationships were deeper.
They can have close friends back home while feeling socially disconnected on campus.
They can be surrounded by people almost constantly and still experience loneliness.
The CDC describes loneliness as the feeling of being alone, disconnected or not close to others. Social connection, meanwhile, includes the size and diversity of someone’s social network, the roles those relationships serve and their positive or negative qualities. CDC social connection data emphasize that meaningful connection is an important component of mental and physical well-being.
That distinction helps explain why counting activities cannot tell us whether a student feels genuinely connected.
One Good Group May Matter More Than Five Memberships
Imagine two students.
The first belongs to one campus organization.
They attend most weeks. People know their name. Someone notices when they are absent. They have gradually become comfortable enough to ask two members to get dinner after meetings.
The second student belongs to five organizations.
They rush between meetings, arrive late, leave early and know dozens of people casually. Their calendar is full, but there is little time for relationships to deepen.
Which student is more socially connected?
We cannot know from the number of memberships.
That is the limitation of treating involvement as a quantity rather than an experience.
For someone who is lonely, the more useful question may not be:
How many activities should I join?
It may be:
Where am I likely to see the same people often enough for familiarity to grow?
The Highest Level Of Involvement Had A Different Distress Pattern
The 2026 study found a curvilinear relationship between organization participation and psychological distress.
In plain language, psychological distress tended to be lower with low-to-moderate participation, but the pattern changed at the highest levels of involvement, where distress increased slightly.
That finding deserves restraint.
It does not prove overinvolvement caused distress.
Students experiencing distress might become more involved for reasons the study cannot determine.
Highly involved students may differ from less-involved students in other ways.
Leadership positions may also carry different responsibilities than ordinary membership.
Academic workload, employment, financial stress, caregiving, sleep, health conditions and numerous other factors could influence psychological well-being.
The researchers themselves identify the cross-sectional design as an important limitation.
So this study should not be turned into a formula such as:
Two clubs are healthy, but four clubs are unhealthy.
The evidence does not support that claim.
What it supports is questioning the assumption that increasing involvement indefinitely will necessarily keep improving well-being. Athlete Mental Health Should Be Monitored Before Performance Starts Falling Apart.
Activities Can Become Responsibilities
Joining a group sounds social.
Running one can feel like work.
A student who becomes highly involved may eventually be responsible for:
Budgets.
Meetings.
Event planning.
Recruitment.
Travel.
Fundraising.
Emails.
Social media.
Conflict between members.
Leadership transitions.
Late-night events.
Those responsibilities may be worthwhile.
Leadership can be meaningful. Students can gain experience, confidence, friendships and professional skills.
But meaningful work still consumes capacity.
The student who originally joined an organization because it was enjoyable may eventually become the person responsible for making the experience enjoyable for everyone else.
That is a different role.
College Students Already Have Competing Demands
Student activities do not occur in isolation.
The same person may also be taking five courses.
Working part time.
Playing a sport.
Managing a health condition.
Commuting.
Applying for internships.
Maintaining a long-distance relationship.
Helping family members.
Trying to sleep enough.
Managing financial stress.
One additional club meeting might be energizing for one student and exhausting for another.
The difference is not necessarily motivation.
It can be capacity.
This is why recommendations to “get involved” should leave room for the rest of someone’s life.
Connection Should Not Become Another Productivity Goal
College culture can turn almost anything into optimization.
Get good grades.
Exercise.
Network.
Build a résumé.
Find internships.
Volunteer.
Develop leadership experience.
Make friends.
Attend events.
Build a professional profile.
Have memorable experiences.
When social connection gets added to that list, students can start approaching friendship like another requirement.
I need to meet more people.
I should attend more events.
I need to say yes more often.
Everyone else seems more involved than I am.
At that point, an activity intended to reduce stress can become another source of pressure.
A student who skips an event because they need sleep has not failed at social connection.
Someone who leaves a club because it no longer fits their life has not failed at resilience.
A quieter social life is not automatically an unhealthy one.
Quality Of Connection Matters
A separate U.S. study using the 2023–2024 Healthy Minds Study adds useful context.
Researchers analyzed 27,965 students from 148 institutions and examined participation across 18 activity types grouped into academic or major-related, athletic or dance, service or identity, and social categories.
Students who participated in activities generally reported greater belonging than nonparticipants. Greater diversity of activity participation was also associated with greater belonging.
Again, this was an observational association rather than proof that activities directly caused greater belonging.
Together, the findings point toward something more nuanced than either “join everything” or “clubs do not matter.”
Participation can create opportunities for connection.
What happens inside those opportunities matters too.
Repetition Can Be More Useful Than Intensity
People often imagine making friends through a significant social moment.
A long conversation.
A party.
A weekend trip.
An immediate connection.
Many relationships develop more quietly.
You see someone every Wednesday.
Eventually you remember their name.
Then you sit near each other.
Then you talk before the meeting starts.
Weeks later, you know something about their life.
This is one reason recurring activities can be useful for students who find direct friend-making exhausting.
The activity provides structure.
Conversation does not have to carry the entire interaction.
There is something else to do.
That can lower the social stakes.
A running club can involve running.
A chess group can involve chess.
A volunteer project gives people a shared task.
A student does not have to enter every activity with the explicit goal of making friends.
Familiarity can develop first.
A Full Calendar Can Hide Loneliness
There is another reason activity counts should be interpreted carefully.
Being busy can disguise social needs.
A student may interact with people from morning until evening without feeling known by any of them.
Classmates are not automatically friends.
Teammates are not automatically confidants.
Club members are not automatically a support system.
Followers are not automatically relationships.
The difference often appears when something goes wrong.
Who could you call after receiving bad news?
Who would notice that you have been unusually quiet?
Who can you spend time with without performing competence?
Who knows something about you beyond your résumé, sport, major or campus role?
Those questions tell us something a crowded calendar cannot.
Rest Is Not Social Failure
A student who wants stronger connections still needs recovery.
That can create a difficult tension.
Someone may think:
If I stay home tonight, I might miss the chance to meet people.
Occasionally pushing beyond comfort can be worthwhile.
But consistently sacrificing sleep, study time or recovery to remain socially available can create another problem.
There is no universal amount of social activity that is psychologically ideal.
People differ in how much interaction they find restorative.
They also differ across circumstances.
A student might enjoy three social evenings during a relatively easy week and need much more quiet during exams.
The goal is not maximizing participation.
It is creating enough connection without eliminating the capacity needed for everything else.
Leadership Can Change The Mental Load
Universities should also distinguish participation from responsibility.
Attending a photography club once a week is not equivalent to being its president.
Playing recreational soccer is not equivalent to organizing the league.
Going to a cultural event is not equivalent to coordinating it.
Leadership can offer meaningful developmental benefits, but it may introduce administrative and interpersonal demands.
Universities encouraging involvement should therefore pay attention not only to whether students participate but also to what participation requires from them.
A student can be socially connected and overextended simultaneously.
Those experiences are not mutually exclusive.
Students Who Are Not Involved Should Not Be Shamed
The 2026 study found that 52.4% of participants reported no involvement in student organizations.
That number should not become a reason to portray uninvolved students as doing college incorrectly.
Students may have good reasons.
Some commute.
Some work.
Some care for relatives.
Some have disabilities or chronic health conditions that affect available energy.
Some participate in communities outside the university.
Some have close relationships that do not involve campus organizations.
Some simply have not found a group that fits.
Universities can make participation more accessible without assuming every student needs the same type of involvement.
That might include activities at different times, lower-commitment options, commuter-friendly programming, accessible spaces and events that do not require people to arrive with an established friend group.
Universities Should Build Conditions For Belonging
The new research has implications beyond individual student behavior.
If belonging matters, universities should not make students entirely responsible for manufacturing it themselves.
A student can make an effort to connect.
Institutions create the environment in which that effort occurs.
The CDC’s broader work on social connection emphasizes that organizations and communities can create conditions that promote meaningful relationships rather than treating loneliness solely as an individual problem. CDC approaches to social connection include community organizations and educational settings as places where stronger relationships can be supported.
For colleges, that can mean asking practical questions.
Are activities affordable?
Are they accessible?
Do commuter students have realistic opportunities to participate?
Can students join after the semester begins?
Are new members welcomed?
Do meeting times exclude students who work?
Are there low-pressure ways to participate without immediately taking on responsibilities?
Belonging is influenced by culture as much as programming.
Joining Something Is Not The Same As Belonging There
A student can technically belong to an organization and still feel peripheral.
They can attend meetings without speaking.
They can feel different from most members.
They can experience discrimination.
They can believe nobody would notice if they stopped attending.
They can be included administratively but excluded socially.
That is why membership numbers alone are an incomplete measure of campus connection.
The more useful outcome is whether students experience relationships characterized by some combination of familiarity, acceptance, support, reciprocity and trust.
A club can create the opportunity.
People create the relationship.
Leaving An Activity Can Sometimes Be A Healthy Decision
Students are frequently encouraged to persist.
That makes sense when discomfort reflects the normal awkwardness of entering a new environment.
The first meeting may feel strange.
People may already know each other.
Conversation may require effort.
A student might need several visits before deciding whether a group fits.
But persistence should not become an obligation to remain somewhere indefinitely.
An organization may consume too much time.
The culture may feel unhealthy.
The activity may no longer be enjoyable.
Academic demands may change.
A student may discover they prefer spending more time with two friends rather than attending four organized groups.
Reducing involvement is not necessarily withdrawal.
Sometimes it is prioritization.
Loneliness Deserves More Than A Busy Schedule
When loneliness is significant, the solution may require more than adding activities.
A student may need help with social anxiety.
They may be grieving.
They may have experienced rejection.
They may be depressed.
They may be struggling with a transition.
They may be dealing with discrimination or bullying.
They may simply not have found compatible people yet.
Persistent loneliness or psychological distress should not be dismissed as something a student can fix by joining another club.
Qualified campus counselors, mental-health professionals, healthcare providers or other appropriate support services may be useful when distress is persistent, worsening or interfering substantially with daily life.
If someone is in immediate danger or experiencing a mental-health crisis in the United States, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides free, confidential crisis support by calling or texting 988. 988 crisis support is available 24 hours a day.
A Better Question Than “How Involved Are You?”
The new 2026 study gives colleges and students an opportunity to ask a better set of questions.
Not only:
How many organizations have you joined?
But:
Do you feel like you belong anywhere?
Are there people who know you beyond your role in the group?
Do your activities leave enough room for sleep, school and recovery?
Are you participating because you enjoy it or because you feel you should?
Has something that used to restore you become another responsibility?
Would one deeper connection serve you better than another membership?
These questions acknowledge what the data suggest without turning an observational study into a prescription.
The Goal Is Connection, Not Maximum Involvement
The 2026 Frontiers in Education study offers both an encouraging and cautionary message.
Among more than 78,000 students from 125 U.S. institutions, greater student-organization participation was associated with stronger belonging, and loneliness declined modestly across participation levels.
That is meaningful.
Campus involvement can provide structure for relationships and create opportunities to become part of a community.
But the psychological-distress pattern was not a straight line toward ever-better outcomes. Distress was lower at low-to-moderate involvement and slightly higher at the greatest levels of participation.
The study cannot tell an individual student how many activities are right for them.
It should not be used that way.
Instead, it challenges a familiar assumption:
If some involvement is helpful, more involvement must be even healthier.
Human connection rarely works that neatly.
One recurring group where a student feels welcomed may be enormously valuable.
Five memberships that eliminate every unscheduled hour may not be.
Sometimes the healthier social goal is not becoming more involved.
It is finding enough connection to feel supported while leaving enough space to remain a person outside the calendar.
