Polyculturalism and cultural adjustment of international students: Exploring the moderating role of cultural distance in a quantitative cross-sectional survey study

For international students, adjusting to the culture of their host country is an essential and challenging task, and previous research has inquired into factors that relate to better adjustment of such students. The current study investigates the possible role of intergroup ideology of polyculturalism in international students’ cultural adjustment, and the effect of cultural distance to this relationship in international students in the University of Macau using a quantitative cross-sectional survey approach. We surveyed 319 international students from different countries that varied in cultural distance from Macau and asked about their endorsement of polyculturalism and their current cultural adjustment. Results showed that who have the greater endorsement of polyculturalism adjusted to the host culture (Macau) better. Multiple regression analysis showed that who had greater endorsement of polyculturalism and came from lower cultural distance societies adjusted to the host culture (Macau) better. Moreover, cultural distance acted as a moderator between polyculturalism and cultural adjustment; specifically, the positive association between polyculturalism and cultural adjustment was observed only when the cultural distance was low. Implications and future directions for theory and practice are discussed.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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