THE MODERATING EFFECT OF PERCEIVED SOCIAL SELF-EFFICACY, AND PERCEIVED SOCIAL SUPPORT ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AND SOCIOCULTURAL ADAPTATION AMONG MYANMAR STUDENTS IN THAILAND UNIVERSITIES
Keywords:
Acculturative Stress; Social Support; Social Self-Efficacy; Sociocultural AdaptationAbstract
The current study explored the acculturative stress of Myanmar international students studying in Thailand universities and its relation to socio-cultural adaptation moderated by personal and social factors, namely, perceived self-efficacy and perceived social support, respectively. This quantitative research utilized a descriptive type of inquiry using a self-report survey questionnaire of 120 Myanmar international students composed of 61 females and 59 males from five universities in Thailand. Findings revealed a direct negative correlation between acculturative stress and socio-cultural adaption. The students’ perceived social support can moderate this relationship. Those with low levels of perceived social support tend to have lower socio-cultural adaptation than those with high levels of perceived social support. Furthermore, perceived social self-efficacy was also found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between acculturative stress and socio-cultural adaptation. Students with low levels of perceived social self-efficacy and acculturative stress are related to lower socio-cultural adaptations. Hence, students who possess a high level of acculturative stress and with low levels of perceived social support and perceived social self-efficacy have the lowest levels of socio-cultural adaptation
References
American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR, 4th edn. (Text Revision). APA Press, Washington, DC.
Asmawati Desa & Fatimsh Yusooff. (2011). Acculturative stress among postgraduate students at UKM. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Science, 59, 364-369.
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84, 191-215.
Berry, J.W. (2006). Acculturative stress. Handbook of multicultural perspectives on stress and coping (pp. 287-298). New York: Springer.
Berry, J. W., Kim, U., Minde, T., & Mok, D. (1987). Comparative studies of acculturative stress. International Migration Review, 21(3), 491-511.
Chapdelaine, R. F., & Alexitch, L. R. (2004). Social skills difficulty: Model of culture shock for international graduate students. Journal of College Student Development, 167-184. doi:10.1353/csd.2004.0021
Church, A. (1982). Sojourner adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 91(3), 540-572.
Cohen, W., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Social support and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310–357
Crocket, L.J., Iturbide, M.I., Stone, R.A.T., McGinley, M., Raffaelli, M., & Carlo, G. (2007). Acculturative stress, social support, and coping: Relations to psychological adjustment among Mexican American college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13, 347–355.
Cronkite, R. C., & Moos, R. H. (1995). Life context, coping process, and depression. In E. Beckham & B. Leber (Eds.), Handbook of depression (2nd ed., pp. 569-587). New York: Guilford.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Methodology in the social sciences. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
Jaroensubphayanont, Narin. (2014). The International Student Policy in Thailand and Its Implications on the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community. 10.13140/RG.2.1.2191.9447.
Kuo BCH, Roysircar G (2006). An exploratory study of cross-cultural adaptation of adolescent Taiwanese unaccompanied sojourners in Canada. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30:159–183
Lee, J., Koeske, G. F., & Sales, E. (2004). Social support buffering of acculturative stress: A study of mental health symptoms among Korean international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 28(5), 399-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2004.08.005
Leung, C. M, & Berry, J. W. (2001). The psychological adaptation of international and migrant students in Canada. (ERIC Document: ED457795).
Lin, C. (2006). Culture shock and social support: An investigation of a Chinese student organization on a U.S. campus. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 35(2), 117-137.
Mahmood, Hajara, “An Analysis of Acculturative Stress, Sociocultural Adaptation, and Satisfaction among International Students at a Non-Metropolitan University” (2014). Dissertations. Paper 63.
Mallinckrodt, B., & Leong, F. T. L. (1992). International graduate students, stress, and social support. Journal of College Student Development, 33(1), 71–78.
Meng, H., Huang, P., Hou, N., and Fan. J (2015). Social self-efficacy predicts Chinese college students’ first-year transition. Journal of Career Assessment, 23(3), 410-426.
Poyrazli, S., Kavanaugh, P. R., Baker, A., & Al-Timimi, N. (2004). Social support and demographic correlates of acculturative stress in international students. Journal of College Counseling, 7(1), 73-83. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-120909064.html
Renner. W, Laireiter. Anton Rupert, Maier. Marco. J. (2012). Social support is a moderator of acculturative stress among refugees and asylum seekers. Social Behavior and Personality, 40(1), 129-146
Ramos Sánchez, L., & Nichols, L. (2007). Self‐Efficacy of First‐Generation and Non‐First‐Generation College Students: The Relationship with Academic Performance and College Adjustment. Journal of College Counseling, 10(1), 6-18.
Sandhu, D. S., & Asrabadi, B. R. (1994). Development of an acculturative stress scale for international students: Preliminary findings. Psychological Reports, 75(1), 435–448. doi: 10.2466/pr0.1994.75.1.435
Searle, W., & Ward, C. (1990). The prediction of psychological and sociocultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 14, 449-464 doi:101016/0147-1767(90)90030-Z
Sherer, M., & Adams, C. H. (1983). Construct validation of the Self Efficacy Scale. Psychological Reports, 53, 899–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1983.53.3.899
Sherer, M., Maddux, J. E., Mercandante, B., Prentice-Dunn, S., Jacobs, B., & Rogers, R. W. (1982). The self-efficacy scale: Construction and validation. Psychological Reports, 51, 663-671.
Thomas, M. & Choi, J. B. (2006). Acculturative stress and social support among Korean and Indian immigrant adolescents in the United States. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 33(2), 123-143
Van Oudenhoven JP, Ward C, Masgoret A-M (2006) Patterns of relations between immigrants and host societies. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30:637–651
Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (1999). The measurement of sociocultural adaptation. Intercultural Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 659-677
Wei, M., Heppner, P. P., Mallen, M. J. Ku, T. Y., Liao, Y.H., & Wu, T. F. (2007). Acculturative stress, perfectionism, years in the United States, and depression among Chinese international students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54, 385-394.
Wildavsky, B. (2010, 26th August). University globalization is here to stay. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/UniversityGlobalization-Is/1241
Williams, C. L., & Berry, J. W. (1991). Primary prevention of acculturative stress among refugees: Application of psychological theory and practice. American Psychologist, 46(6), 632. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.46.6.632.
Xia, J. (2009). Analysis of the impact of culture shock on individual psychology. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 1, 97-101. doi:10.5539/ijps.v1n2p97
Yi Lian & Kwok-kuen Tsang (2010). The impact of acculturation strategies and social support on the cross-cultural adaptation of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong. Educational Research Journal, 25(1), 81-102.
Yusoff, Y. M. (2012). Self-Efficacy, perceived social support, and psychological adjustment in international undergraduate students in Malaysia’s public higher education institution. Journal of Studies in International Education, 16(4), 353-371.
Zimet, G.D., Dahlem, N.W., Zimet, S.G. & Farley, G.K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52, 30-41.
Zhao, Y., Jindal-Snape, D., Topping, K., & Todman, J. (2008). Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 33(1), 63-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070701794833
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The submitting author warrants that the submission is original and that she/he is the author of the submission together with the named co-authors; to the extend the submission incorporates text passages, figures, data, or other material from the work of others, the submitting author has obtained any necessary permission.
Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY What does this mean?). This is to get more legal certainty about what readers can do with published articles, and thus a wider dissemination and archiving, which in turn makes publishing with this journal more valuable for you, the authors.
