Chickering has received numerous awards for his service to the development of the fields of student affairs and college student development theories. These include:

• the E.F. Lindquist Award from the American Educational Research Association for his studies of college impacts on student development
• the Outstanding Service Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators
• the Distinguished Contribution to Knowledge Award from the American College Personnel Association
• the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for Independent Colleges
• the Howard R. Bowen Distinguished Career Award for the Association for the Study of Higher Education, for extraordinary contributions to research, leadership and service.

While employed at Goddard College Chickering began the research that lead to his most notable publication, Education and Identity. Between 1959 and 1969 he did testing on college students between their sophomore and senior years. Compiling this with data from several other dissimilar colleges he gathered through being the director of the Project on Student Development in Small Colleges, he created his theories of what influences and affects college students in their development. He published in 1969 which explained his seven-vector theory of student development. With the help of Linda Reisser, he updated and republished his theories in 1993.

Arthur Chickering is the author of many publications relating to student affairs and college student development theories. These include:

• Education and Identity (1969, 1993)
• Commuting Versus Resident Students: Overcoming Educational Inequities of Living Off Campus (1974)
• The Modern American College: Responding to the New Realities of Diverse Students and a Changing Society (1981)
• Improving Higher Education Environments for Adults: Responsive Programs and Services from Entry to Departure (1989, with N.K. Schlossberg and A.Q. Lynch)
• Getting the Most Out of College, (1995, 2001), with Nancy Schlossberg).