Acculturative Stress and Influential Factors among International Students in China: A Structural Dynamic Perspective

Abstract

Stress represents a prominent aspect of modern life and is associated with numerous negative health consequences. International students are a key force in shaping globalization. However, these students often experience acculturative stress, influencing their health and well-being. The growing number of international students in China emerges as a new global health challenge and presents an opportunity to advance our understanding of acculturative stress. This study aims to investigate the acculturative stress of international students in China, and verify the mechanism and influential factors of acculturative stress. We analyzed survey data from 567 international students attending universities in Wuhan, China. We used a network-based analytical approach to assess the structure of the Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students and used regression analysis to assess the relationships between acculturative stress and theoretically related factors. We found that higher levels of acculturative stress were reported by students from Asia and Africa than from other regions (Europe/America/Oceania). Lower acculturative stress was reported by unmarried students than others and by students well prepared than not well prepared. We verified seven acculturative stress subconstructs: rejection, identity threat, opportunity deprivation, self-confidence, value conflict, cultural competence, and homesickness; and discovered a three-dimensional network structure of these subconstructs. Our results suggest that acculturative stress was more common among international students in China than in developed countries. Acculturative stress was also more common among international students who did not well prepared, married, and belonged to an organized religion. African and Asian students' stress was higher than that for students from other regions. Acculturative stress prevention programs should seek to improve preparedness of the international students for studying abroad and pay extra attention to the high risk subgroups.

Path Analysis of Acculturative Stress Components and Their Relationship with Depression Among International Students in China

“…A novel contribution of our study is the verification of the inter-relationship among the seven acculturative stress components (Yu et al, 2014a) and depression. The path analysis demonstrated the key role of selfconfidence in predicting CES-D 10 scores.…”

“…International students in China are a growing and at‐risk population for acculturative stress and depression. With data from the International Student Health and Behaviour Survey (Yu et al, ) in China, seven acculturative stress components were detected in a previous study (Yu et al, ), including a central component (self‐confidence), three distal components (value conflict, identity threat and rejection) and three proximal components (poor cultural competence, opportunity deprivation and homesickness). The current study extended the previous study to investigate the relationship between these components and depression with data also from International Student Health and Behaviour Survey.…”

Antecedents of Psychological Adjustment of International Students Studying in China: The Roles of Self-Efficacy and Self-Esteem

“…More specifically, the common challenges that international students encounter include language barriers, perceived discrimination, financial concerns, homesickness, academic pressure and culture shock [12] [13] [14]. Similarly, several studies conducted among international students studying in China revealed that the students experienced mental health problems, such as stress and depression as a result of acculturative stressors [15] [16] [17]. In light of the psychological adjustment difficulties and their devastating impact on psychological well-being, numerous researchers have at- [9] [10] [25].…”

Major Causes of Acculturative Stress and Their Relations with Sociodemographic Factors and Depression among International Students

“…Because of mixed and debatable findings, there is no definite conclusion about the nature of the association between acculturative stress and marital status. According to Ahalya and Berry [31], unmarried individuals experienced greater acculturative stress than married ones, and the finding contradicted the finding of Yu, Chen [32].…”

“…Educational level. In some studies, acculturative stress has also been found associated with the educational qualification of participants, indicating that bachelor students experience less acculturative stress than master and doctorate students [32].…”