Explanatory Modeling of the Environmental Factors Influencing the Formation of Sense of Attachment to University; Case Study: Students of Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch

Place attachment is one of the levels of the individuals’ relationship with the place and it leads to the improvement in the behavioral and scientific performance of the university students by influencing their behavior and controlling their negative behavioral patterns in an academic environment. This is while the environmental factors influencing this sense depend on the type of a place’s performance and the recognition of these factors, especially in academic spaces, in addition to the contribution to the enhancement of the designing quality of the academic spaces, assists the universities’ officials, as well, in accomplishing one of their essential goals, i.e. the elevation of the university’s academic level. Thus, the place attachment and its aspects were explained to identify these factors in the university environment using the correlation method based on the existing literature in this area and the assumed effective factors in the creation of place attachment in three aspects of functional, physical and social particularly in university spaces were studied within the format of the theoretical model. Then, to test the model, 373 university students were selected from the technical-engineering, art and architecture and basic sciences departments of Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, based on random-clustering method following which the researcher-made questionnaires were distributed among them. After verifying the validity and reliability of the measurement instrument using the fit estimation indices and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the gathered data were subjected to path analysis using SPSS Software and the direct and indirect effect of each of the assumed factors on the sense of attachment to university was determined. The results of this study indicated that, amongst the factors influencing the artificial environment of the university, “the proper proportion of the spaces’ dimension with the performance” as well as “the number of their users” have the highest effect on the university students’ sense of attachment to the university. Moreover, paying attention to the color used in the spaces and the thermal comfort conditions in the building indirectly lead to the improvement of the quality of the university students’ relationship with the academic environment via influencing the performance of the administrative staff and the university-students’ interactions.