ROSEMARY WILLIAM EUSTACE
The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the acculturation process of international students by examining the relationships among the concepts depicted in Berry’s (1987) Acculturative Stress model: acculturative stressors, social support and acculturative stress. In addition, specific socio-cultural and demographic characteristics that were present prior to and during acculturation were identified and their influences on acculturative stress were explored. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the study’s findings and draw appropriate implications and conclusions. The discussion focuses on how the acculturative variables are interrelated as proposed in Berry and associates’ acculturative research framework as well as on how the ecological environment contributes to the international students’ acculturation outcomes.
Relationship between Acculturative Stressor(s) and Stress
This study investigated how acculturative stressors of international students relate to their acculturative stress levels. The results clearly support the hypothesis about the effect of students’ perceived difficulty with the stressors on their stress level. Overall, students who reported higher levels of difficulty on acculturative stressors were more likely to exhibit higher levels of stress related to their adjustment in a new culture. This finding is consistent with the prediction that as the acculturating individual evaluates the meaning of his/her acculturation as a source of difficulty, the outcome is likely to induce stress (Berry, 1997).
In addition, when examining the prevalence of acculturative stress among international students, results indicate that all international students are experiencing some form of acculturative stress with the majority of them experiencing relatively high levels. This finding is consistent with other studies that have conceptualized acculturative stress utilizing the Index of Life Stress scale (e.g. Lee, Koeske, & Sales, 2004; Yang & Clum, 1995) as well as those studies using other acculturation stress measurement tools (e.g., Msengi, 2003; Poyrali, Kavanaugh, Baker & Al-Timimi, 2004).
Former studies investigating the experiences of international students utilizing Berry’s acculturation model only partially addressed the conceptualization of the stressor component. Instead, they focused on the levels of stress without specifically identifying or measuring the sources of the stress (what Berry labeled as “acculturative stressors”). A major contribution of the current study is the emphasis put on the role of the stressors themselves. A new measurement tool was created (the Acculturative Stressors Scale) that allowed the opportunity to examine the influence of the stressors on the experience of stress itself. One interesting finding related to the stressors was that the majority of the students perceived their level of difficulty with the stressors as somewhere between “somewhat difficult” and “difficult.” This finding implies that most of students who come to the U.S. for international study perceive some of their acculturation experiences as a source of difficulty. This may be partly explained by the high expectations they held regarding their U.S. educational and social experiences prior to international study.
The Relationship between Social Support and Acculturative Stress
Social support plays a major role in the adjustment of individuals who come in contact with a new culture (Hovey, 2000). This important component of the students’ microsystem was included in Berry’s (1987) model and has been shown to have a significant influence on international students’ acculturation experience (e.g., Lee, Koeske & Sales, 2004). Overall, the current study demonstrates that international students had relatively high amounts of social support; with the highest levels of support coming from important others, followed by friends and family. This finding on the prevalence of social support is consistent with previous studies (e.g. Lee, Koeske, & Sales, 2004; Yang & Clum, 1995).
As for the hypothesis that social support moderates the relationship between acculturative stressors and stress, the results suggest that students who reported high social support during acculturation are likely to experience less impact of the experienced difficulty with the stressors on their stress levels. This finding is consistent with the Berry and associates’ (1987) acculturation framework proposition that social support serves as a moderator or “buffer” on the degree of relationship between an individual’s stressor(s) and stress as well as other buffering stress models (e.g., Mallinckrodt & Leong, 1992; Sam, 2001). As for the individual contributions of the different dimensions of social support (i.e. family, friends or important others) on the relationship between stressor and stress, the results were not conclusive.
However, when exploring the main effects of the three kinds of support, important others support was the only significant predictor of acculturative stress. Students who experienced higher levels of support from important others (i.e. community, religious places, faculty, international student centers and student organizations) were more likely to experience more stress independently of the perceived levels of difficulty of the stressors. These results support the prior studies that have examined types of support other than family and friends. For instance, it has been reported that international students who experience significant amounts of faculty support are more likely to also experience psychological distress and somatic complaints (Kaczmarek, Matlock, Merta, Ames & Ross, 1994). It is important to remember that this is a correlational finding; therefore, it does not indicate causality. With this in mind, it is possible that in the current sample, students who were seeking support from important others were already experiencing higher levels of stress. This could illustrate that the students coped with the stress by seeking assistance from these important others.
It is well documented that international students lose their shared identity and support from their families and friends as they pursue studies in a foreign country (Hayes & Lin, 1994; Perdersen, 1991). This loss of support forces them to develop new cross-cultural friendships with individuals from the host nation as well as with other international students. However, most of the time this kind of support is also limited because they too are likely to be going through the same life changes. As a result, international students will be more likely to turn to faculty members and counselors, and less likely to turn to friends for support (Leong & Sedlacek, 1986).
This finding suggests that important others, such as religious organizations, faculty, advisors and international student centers, have a significant role to play in the acculturation of international students, especially those who are already experiencing stressful life events. International student centers help with orientation of new students, community events, cultural and academic issues (Scott, 1994). International student organizations and religious organizations offer an opportunity to develop a sense of community for the students (Scott).
More studies need to be done to determine how to encourage these microsystem influences on international students’ adjustments.
The Relationship between Socio-Cultural and Demographic Variables and Acculturative Stress
When the relationships between the selected socio-cultural and demographic variables and acculturative stress were concurrently explored, findings indicated that several macrosystem level variables were important: perceived cultural values in country of origin as collectivistic (cultural distance), use of the assimilation mode of acculturation, having a low monthly income and describing one’s social-class during acculturation as lower- middle class and lower class. For instance, when examining the predictive role of cultural distance on acculturative stress, the results show that the greater the cultural differences during acculturation, the lower the positive adaptation (Berry, 1997).
Students in the current sample identified their home country’s cultural value as relatively collectivistic when compared to the current U.S. community which they identified as individualistic. This notion of individualism-collectivism has been discussed in the acculturation literature to signify the cultural differences between the so called “Western” and “Eastern” cultures. The differences between these value systems include the basic attributes of individual expression (individualistic) and dependence and conformity (collectivistic). Thus, the hypothesis that students from a collectivistic country will experience more significant acculturation problems is supported by the current study findings. For example, in academic settings within collectivistic cultures that emphasize conformity, students are expected to be extremely respectful of their teachers. They expect to remain quiet in class and receive knowledge from the instructor. However, students in the U.S. (an individualistic culture) are expected to participate actively in class discussions and be assertive – even challenge a teacher’s ideas. Clearly, these differences in cultural values within the classroom can (and do) cause stress for these students.
This suggests that as long as the majority of the international students who come to study in the U.S. continue to perceive their cultural values as significantly more “collectivistic” than U.S. culture, some kind of stress is inevitable because of the difference in these cultural value orientations. This finding is important especially when designing programs that focus on preventing potential negative stress outcomes such as stress induced morbidity and poor adaptation.
Exploration of the acculturation strategies, descriptively, suggested that the majority of the international students in this sample utilized the integration strategy, followed by assimilation, separation and then marginalization. It was hypothesized that integration would stand out to be the best predictor of lower stress levels than assimilation, separation and marginalization. The hypothesis was based on the earlier literature that the integrationist strategy offers a bicultural base of support in which acculturating individuals have the most protective factors (i.e., two social support systems) (Berry, 1997). Marginalization, on the other hand, offers the least adaptation while assimilation and separation are intermediate. However, the findings suggest that the assimilation strategy significantly predicted lower acculturative stress levels better than integration. Why this is so, however, is not clear. Berry (1997) has argued that the choice of strategy depends on personal preferences of which strategy is more useful and satisfying according to a given context and time period. Therefore, it is possible that with the current socio-political and cultural changes that reflect how the host nation perceives illegal immigrants in the United States, the traditional “melting pot” or assimilationist phenomenon might also work best for international students’ positive adaptation. Individual personality characteristics also could help explain this phenomenon. Persons who are flexible in nature may be more likely to choose the assimilation acculturation strategy. These individuals, because of their flexible personalities, also would be less likely to experience high levels of stress than those who are less flexible and may use another acculturation strategy. Also, the use of the integration strategy may not significantly lower stress levels. This is to be expected because the use of this strategy, especially early in the process of acculturation, includes the challenges of dealing with more than one culture as one defines oneself and interacts with the host culture. In the long run, however, integration would be useful for lowering stress levels because it would assist in adaptation. The outcome of integration (meshing the two cultures) should help produce a positive sense of self and a healthy set of coping strategies for use within the host culture. Future studies should explore the process of the application of the acculturation strategies to more fully understand the relationship between strategy and acculturation stress. Longitudinal data would be especially helpful in examining the process over time.
High socio-economic status (SES) is a protective resource against life stressors (Berry, 1997). In the present study, the findings indicate that perceived lower social-class during adjustment and lower income are significant predictors of higher acculturative stress. In addition, this study also demonstrates that the majority of the students described their place in the economic world before acculturation as a relatively higher status than during acculturation. This is not a new phenomenon in the acculturation literature of other acculturating groups, such as immigrants. For instance, it has been reported that when individuals decide to migrate to a new environment, they forego their resources and experience status loss and limited status mobility (Berry, 1997). These factors are important predictors of economic adaptation (Aycan & Berry, 1996) as well as stress among acculturating individuals. As reflected in the current study, students who are in the lower social status are more likely to experience high stress. However, this finding should be interpreted with caution. The results might imply that international students, like any other students, are prone to experience stress related to the temporary loss of their economic status, which will eventually change after completing their studies.
As mentioned earlier, having a low income was predictive of higher stress for this sample. This finding is consistent with those of earlier studies that lack of adequate funding is a major source of stress among acculturating individuals (e.g., Hovey, 2000; Padilla, Wagatsuma & Lindholm, 1985). This finding could be explained by the students’ immigration limitations.
According to the U.S. visa restriction policies, international students are full-time students and are not allowed to work outside their academic institution while in the U.S. This limits their employment opportunities. In addition, international graduate students must report assistantships as the only source of income (which applies to majority of these graduate students); therefore, one also becomes limited for on-campus employment opportunities. Students often need their graduate assistantship stipends not only for paying tuition and fees, but also for their daily activities of living (e.g., food, rent, transportation and emergency funds). As a result, they might experience adjustment difficulties. However, given the average monthly income of about $1200 for this sample and a substantial number of students indicating zero income, this finding should be interpreted with caution. It was not clearly established how students conceptualized income. Maybe some students who indicated no income at all did so because they did not regard a scholarship, family support or any other financial support as income. Future studies should examine the role of these varied sources of income for international students and investigate how these sources impact their academic and socio-cultural adjustments.
Marital status was found to significantly correlate with acculturative stress. However, in terms of predictive power, marital status was not a significant predictor of stress in this study. Therefore, the prediction that international students who were single would display higher levels of stress than the married ones was not statistically supported. However, on a closer look at the influence of the marital status categories, the data indicated that students who were in the “other” category (i.e. students who identified themselves as divorced, separated, widowed, engaged and other) were less likely than those who were single to experience higher stress levels. This is an interesting finding. Why did these individuals in the “other” category report lower levels of stress than those who were single? It may be that they have left behind unsuccessful or conflictual relationships (e.g., separated, divorced). Or they have more resources and career experience than the single students. This needs to be examined specifically before any implications are drawn. It seems surprising that being married was not significantly related to levels of stress. This may be because marriage can provide both a supportive system as well as serve as a stressor - especially for international students with spouses who are not well integrated or who feel very isolated within U.S. society. Further examination of the role of marital relationship must be explored as it relates to the students’ acculturative stress.
Future research could benefit the acculturation literature by identifying additional contributory factors to the variance of acculturative stress such as international student-faculty relationship, student’s personality, expectations prior to acculturation and previous international experiences. Moreover, following the inconsistent findings on the relationship between the socio-cultural and demographic characteristics and acculturative stress, future studies may also benefit the international students literature by exploring the influence of these variables on the specific stress attributes (such as discrimination, loneliness, homesickness) to determine if any difference exists. This suggestion stems from some earlier interesting findings. For example, Razavi (1989) found that younger and older international students had similar degrees of difficulty, but voiced separate issues. In some studies, males compared to females were more likely to experience prejudice and fear (Sodowsky & Plake, 1992), perceived hatred (Ye, 2006), estrangement (Klomegah, 2006), greater adjustment issues related to financial responsibility and were less likely to use the English language (Sodowsky & Plake). These findings suggest that students’ individual characteristics may be influenced by their situational and personal factors which eventually affect their stress levels.
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