Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Ruth Chu-Lien Chao, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Kathy Green, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Julia Roncoroni, Ph.D.

Fourth Advisor

Artur Poczwardowski, Ph.D.

Keywords

Acculturation orientation, Asian international student, Collective, Coping strategies, Self-esteem, Cultural intelligence, Social self-efficacy

Abstract

Asian international students account for 70% of international students in the U.S., which makes 4.3% of total population enrolled in American universities and colleges. They experience stress related to adapting to mainstream culture in the U.S. (i.e., acculturative stress), which negatively impacts their mental health and view of self. The negative impacts also include willingness and ability to perform social behaviors and to maintain interpersonal relationships (i.e., social self-efficacy). Previous acculturation studies proposed from a theoretical perspective that several factors may alleviate the negative impact of acculturative stress and enhance Asian international students' social self-efficacy. These factors include acculturation orientation (i.e., navigating between the culture in the host country and people's cultures of origin), collective coping strategies (i.e., emotional, cognitive, or behavioral coping approaches that are consistent with collectivistic characteristics), cultural intelligence (i.e., the ability to function effectively in culturally diverse settings), and collective self-esteem (i.e., people's positive evaluation of their group identity). This study explored the moderation effects of the above four factors and the interaction effects in two separate moderation models. The first model is a three-way interaction including acculturative stress, acculturation orientation, and collective coping strategies in predicting Asian international students' social self-efficacy. The second model focuses on the three-way interaction among acculturative stress, cultural intelligence, and collective self-esteem in their ability to predict Asian international students' social self-efficacy. Students (n = 216) participated in this study by filling out an online questionnaire. By using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, this study detected a significant moderation effect for cultural intelligence, a significant moderation effect for collective self-esteem, and a significant three-way interaction for acculturative stress, cultural intelligence, and collective self-esteem in predicting social self-efficacy. The findings of this study will help provide suggestions for outreach programs and psycho-educational workshops for Asian international students in the U.S.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Jinzhao Zhao

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

190 p.

Discipline

Counseling psychology

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