The need to belong and its association with fully satisfying relationships: A tale of two measures

The current research compares the Need to Belong Scale (NTBS; Leary, Kelly, Cottrell, & Schreindorfer, 2013) and the Antecedents subscale of the Sense of Belongingness Inventory (SOBI-A; Hagerty & Putusky, 1995) to determine whether they represent approach or neuroticism-driven avoidance orientations in the need to belong. This research also extends previous research on these constructs to examine direct and moderating associations involving the need to belong and the quantity and quality of personal close relationships. Students (N = 869) from a large university in the Southwest USA completed a battery of measures. Results indicated that the NTBS was associated with lower quality “partial” relationships rather than high quality “whole” relationships; this was not the case for the comparative SOBI-A. In addition, greater numbers of whole relationships buffered the effects of the NTBS on depression. The results are discussed in terms of the Belongingness Orientation Model.