How Belonging Works: A Practical Framework for Research & Practice

How Belonging Works

Belonging does not always just happen. And I think the recent global pandemic was a good reminder of that. Many people around the world, myself included, experienced extended lockdown periods. Our social worlds, as we knew and experienced them, changed. And while social relationships are only one lens through which people experience belonging, for many they are central. Incidental social interactions with everyone from postal workers, doctors, neighbours, and dog walkers were reduced. These are often the people who help us feel seen and valued in our communities. Many loved ones in aged care homes experienced restricted or no visitation. Many people reported loneliness and social isolation. Our sense of belonging was challenged and, for some, diminished. And as a result, in the years following, attention turned toward belonging and the research that seeks to understand it.

This attention was not confined to academia. Brands and organisations also began to speak more explicitly about belonging. Companies such as M&M’s, Disney, Airbnb, and Headspace positioned belonging as something that matters for wellbeing. While these approaches differ in depth, they reflect a broader recognition that belonging shapes how people feel, participate, and belonging across their lifecourse.

Why a framework is needed

The purpose of the integrative framework emerged from acknowledging a research–practice gap. When I joined academia, I was astounded by how long it often takes for research to move into practice. In many cases, this process stretches close to a decade. I was even more astounded to realise that some of the world’s greatest researchers hold knowledge that has never been applied in real settings. Work that could reshape education and the way we approach learning often remains out of reach. This includes insights into how students learn mathematics, how classrooms respond to difference, and how systems support those who feel excluded.

I did not want this to happen in my own research area. I wanted to design an approach from the outset that could be used in a practical sense. I asked questions that practitioners ask. What could a psychologist or health care worker do if a client walked in feeling isolated, lonely, ostracised, or rejected? What could anyone do to help themselves? What could an educator do to build belonging in a classroom or a leader such as CEOs or university vice-chancellor do at an institutional level?

The framework I developed with colleagues focuses on what psychologists call antecedents. Antecedents are the conditions that give rise to belonging. They are not domains that describe what belonging is made up of. They describe what makes belonging possible.

Another motivation of the framework was to bring together theories and research perspectives that have often developed or been applied in fragmented ways. Belonging research spans many disciplines and traditions, yet it has remained scattered throughout the literature. This framework works toward a more coherent account of belonging that draws on multiple knowledge traditions, including Indigenous scholarship, such as the work of Moreton-Robinson, alongside psychological, educational, and sociological research. It also draws attention to research areas that have been underappreciated or sidelined in mainstream belonging scholarship, including older foundational work. In doing so, the framework seeks to honour key theoretical perspectives, including the role of attribution, belonging to place, land sovereignty, and spirituality.

About the Framework

Belonging develops through a set of interacting conditions that unfold over time and across experiences and settings. This framework brings together decades of research and prespectives from around the world to explain how belonging is built and sustained across the lifespan. It applies to childhood and adulthood, to family and work, to institutions and everyday life.

The framework is now used beyond academic research to guide practice, policy, and system design, including in schools, community organisations, and education systems internationally. It supports institutions to design belonging-centred actions that are practical, observable, and capable of being sustained over time.

An Integrative Framework of Belonging

The framework rests on four interrelated elements that shape belonging and help explain how it develops over time (Allen et al., 2021; Allen, 2025). These are perceptions, motivations, competencies, and opportunities. But it is not just these antecedents. There are broader conditions that also shape belonging, and some of these sit beyond individual control. Social, cultural, and structural forces influence belonging, even when people are motivated, have resources and are capable.

The antecedents are interconnected. They shape one another and are shaped by the wider systems people move within. A shift in one often alters the others, sometimes subtly and sometimes in ways that are immediately felt. Although the framework depicted above appears static, it is dynamic and different in every individual. And even for individuals can be fluid even through the course of a single day. Perceptions, motivations, competencies, and opportunities are always in motion. Changing across moments, settings, and stages of life.

Belonging can also be understood as a mostly active process that benefits from attention and effort. Leaving this to chance can work for some people in some situations. And often we only notice belonging when something feels out of place. Planning for belonging involves recognising which elements are in play, understanding how they interact, and making conscious choices about where to invest effort.

This is what allows belonging to be built and sustained.

Step 1. Own a belonging mindset

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Belonging begins with how people understand their place in the world. This includes beliefs about their own belonging, how they fit, and how they see the belonging of others. These perceptions matter because they shape how people interpret everyday experiences and social signals.

Research shows that people are constantly reading social cues and making judgements about belonging, their own and that of those around them. A message left on read, a missed invitation, or a period of change at work can all be interpreted as disruptions to belonging. At a broader level, social fragmentation, political polarisation, and attitudes toward immigration and refugees show how beliefs and assumptions shape who is seen as belonging and who is not. These perceptions influence how people experience belonging from a psychological standpoint. They shape responses to uncertainty and difficulty and can determine whether people withdraw, which rarely supports belonging.

Perceptions also matter for how belonging is extended to others. The way people interpret difference, uncertainty, or distance influences whether they create spaces of belonging or reinforce marginalisation or ostracism.

A belonging mindset recognises that belonging fluctuates. It accepts uncertainty without treating it as evidence of not belonging. It understands that belonging is not a fixed state, but something that shifts across time, settings, and relationships.

Step 2. Leverage opportunities for belonging

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Belonging opportunities refer to the actual chances people have to engage, participate, be valued and accepted within a setting while feeling safe at the same time. These opportunities can be interpersonal, instructional, or institutional. They include at the most basic level, being invited into a social interaction, or having access to activities, being able to contribute ideas, and having one’s contribution acknowledged.

Opportunities are shaped by how environments are structured and by who those environments are designed to serve. Leadership decisions, classroom practices, organisational routines, informal social networks, and belonging norms and culture all determine opportunities to belong.

Opportunities also depend on how they are experienced. Not every opportunity leads to belonging. Engagement only supports belonging when it allows people to feel heard, valued, safe and able to participate. This is why the same setting can offer belonging to one person and not to another.

Deliberate actions that create new ways for people to connect, contribute, and be recognised are providing opportunities for belonging.

Step 3. Sustain motivation to belong

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Motivation reflects how strongly people seek belonging, belonging needs and variation, and how willing people are to seek belonging opportunities, especially when belonging feels uncertain. People differ in their motivations to belong. Past experiences, identity, and perceived risk shape how much effort someone is prepared to invest. For some, the pull toward belonging remains strong even after rejection.

For others, repeated threat, exclusion, or disappointment leads to people feeling uncertain or withdrawing. Therefore, sustaining motivation requires environments that minimise unnecessary threat and make it possible for people to re-enter, reconnect, and try again without penalty.

Step 4. Strengthen competencies for belonging

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Belonging is supported by skills and competencies. These include social, emotional, and cultural capacities that help people read situations, respond to others, regulate emotion, and navigate difference and conflict. These skills are learned and refined across the lifespan.

Competencies support belonging in several ways. They help people participate in ways that align with shared norms. They also help people cope when belonging is strained. Skills such as emotional regulation, perspective taking, and communication reduce the personal cost of social difficulty and help build strong interpersonal relationships.

While competencies can be shaped by access to education, culture, and support, they can be built at the individual level and provide a pathway for individuals to take control over their own sense of belonging alongside accessing opportunities, and keeping track of their beliefs and perceptions.

Beyond the four steps

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Belonging is shaped by far more than the four antecedents alone. Time, history, context, individual differences, and identity all matter. So do social hierarchies and power relations. These forces influence who is able to belong, where belonging is made possible, and whose belonging is treated as legitimate.

This framework treats belonging as a dynamic and individualised process rather than a single or stable feeling. It helps explain why belonging can feel secure in one setting and uncertain in another, and why it can shift across moments and life stages. It also makes clear that lasting belonging depends on attention to people and to the systems they move within, not one without the other.