Description of the development and testing of a new 36-item scale in Likert format, designed to assess the acculturative stress of international students, includes perceived discrimination, homesickness, fear, guilt, perceived hatred, and stress due to change (cultural shock), identified as major contributing factors. The psychometric properties of this instrument and implications for use by mental health practitioners are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlexanderA. A.KleinM. H.WorknehF.MillerM. H. (1981) Psychotherapy and the foreign student. In PedersenP.DragunsJ.LonnerW.TrimbleJ. (Eds.), Counseling across cultures. (2nd ed.) Honolulu, IllUniver. of Hawaii Press. Pp. 227–243.
2.
AllenF. C. L.ColeJ. B. (1987) Foreign student syndrome: Fact or fable?Journal of American College Health, 35, 182–186.
3.
AltbachP. G.KellyD. H.LulatY. G. M. (1985) Research on foreign students and international study: An overview and bibliography. New York: Praeger.
4.
AltbachP. G.WangJ. (1989) Foreign students and international study: Bibliography and analysis, 1984–1989. Lanham, MD: Univer. Press of America.
5.
AndersonT. R.MyerT. E. (1985) Presenting problem, counselor contacts, and “no shows”: International and American college students. Journal of College Student Personnel, 26, 500–503.
6.
BabikerF. E.CoxJ. L.MillerM. C. (1980) The measurement of cultural distance and its relationship to medical consultations, symptomatology and examination performance of overseas students at Edinburg University. Social Psychiatry, 15, 109–116.
7.
BerryJ. W. (1984) Psychological adaptation of foreign students. In SamudaR.WolfgangA. (Eds.), Intercultural counseling and assessment. Toronto: Hogrefe. Pp. 235–248.
8.
BochnerS. (1972) Problems in culture learning. In BochnerS.WicksP. (Eds.), Overseas students in Australia. Auburn: New South Wales Univer. Press.
9.
BochnerS.HutnikN.FurnhamA. (1985) The friendship patterns of overseas and host students in an Oxford student residence. Journal of Social Psychology, 125, 689–694.
10.
BoisC. D. (1956) Foreign students and higher education in the United States. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
11.
BurbachH. J. (1972) The development of a contextual measure of alienation. Pacific Sociological Review, 15, 225–234.
12.
ChurchA. T. (1982) Sojourner adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 540–572.
13.
DayR. C.HajjF. M. (1986) Delivering counseling services to international students: The experience of the American University of Beirut. Journal of College Student Personnel, 27, 353–357.
14.
DillardJ. M.ChisolmG. B. (1983) Counseling the international student in a multicultural context. Journal of College Student Personnel, 24, 101–105.
15.
DillonT. W. (1993) “Copia rerum” confronting interlanguage with international students. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 7, 246–255.
16.
FashehM. (1984) Foreign students in the United States: An enriching experience or wasteful one?Contemporary Educational Psychology, 9, 313–320.
17.
FurnhamA.AlibhaiN. (1985) The friendship networks of foreign students: A replication and extension of the functional model. International Journal of Psychology, 20, 709–722.
18.
HeikinheimoP. S.ShuteJ. C. M. (1986) The adaptation of foreign students: Student views and institutional implications. Journal of College Student Personnel, 27, 399–406.
19.
JohnsonD. (1971) Problems of foreign students. International Educational and Cultural Exchange, 7, 61–68.
20.
KaiserH. F. (1974) An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39, 31–36.
21.
KlinebergO.HullW. F. (1979) At a foreign university: An international study of adaptation and coping. New York: Praeger.
22.
LeeM. Y. (1981) Needs of foreign students from developing nations at U.S. colleges and universities. Washington, DC: National Association for Foreign Student Affairs.
23.
ManeseJ. E.SedlacekW. E.LeongF. T. L. (1988) Needs and perceptions of female and male international undergraduate students. Journal of Counseling and Development, 6, 24–29.
24.
MenaF.PadillaA.MaldonadoM. (1987) Acculturative stress and specific coping strategies among immigrant and later generation college students. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 9, 207–225.
25.
MestenhauserJ. A. (1983) Learning from sojourners. In LandisD.BrislinR. W. (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural training. Vol. 2. New York: Pergamon. Pp. 153–185.
26.
NaditchM. P.MorrisseyR. F. (1976) Role stress, personality and psychopathology in a group of immigrant adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 113–118.
27.
OwieI. (1982) Social alienation among foreign students. College Student Journal, 16, 163–165.
28.
PadillaA. M.AlvarezM.LindholmK. J. (1986) Generational status and personality factors as predictors of stress in students. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 8, 275–288.
29.
PedersenP. B. (1988) A handbook for developing multicultural awareness. Alexandria, VA: American Association for Counseling and Development.
30.
PedersenP. B. (1991) Counseling international students. The Counseling Psychologist, 19(1), 10–58.
31.
RomeroM. (1981) Multicultural reality: The pain of growth. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 59, 384–386.
32.
RubinD. L. (1993) The other half of international teaching assistant training: Classroom communication workshops for international students. Innovative Higher Education, 17, 183–193.
33.
SchramJ. L.LauverP. J. (1988) Alienation in international students. Journal of College Student Development, 29, 146–150.
34.
SiegelC. (1991) Counseling international students: A clinician's comments. The Counseling Psychologist, 19(1), 72–75.
35.
SpauldingS.FlackM. (1976) The world's students in the United States: A review and evaluation of research on foreign students. New York: Praeger.
36.
SpradleyJ. P.PhillipsM. (1972) Culture and stress: A quantitative analysis. American Anthropologist, 74, 518–529.
37.
ThomasK. A.AlthenG. (1989) Counseling foreign students. In PedersenP.DragunsJ.LonnerW.TrimbleJ. (Eds.), Counseling across cultures. (3rd ed.) Honolulu, HI: Univer. of Hawaii Press. Pp. 205–241.
38.
VegaW. A.KolodyB.ValleJ. R. (1988) Migration and mental health: An empirical test of depression risk factors among immigrant Mexican women. International Migration Review, 21, 512–528.
39.
WaltonB. J. (1971) Research on foreign graduate students. International Educational and Cultural Exchange, 6, 17–29.
40.
WardL. (1967) Some observations on the underlying dynamics of conflict in a foreign student. Journal of the American College Health Association, 10, 430–440.
41.
ZikopoulosM. (Ed.) (1991) Open doors: 1990–91 report on international educational exchange. New York: Institute of International Education.