SINGAPOREAN SOJOURNERS : MEETING THE DEMANDS OF CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSITIONS

Abstract

Student sojourners are people who travel to other cultures to study for a specified period with the intention of leaving that culture upon completion of their education. Research with sojourners has generally found that making a cross-cultural transition is a process that is accompanied by a variety of psychological and behavioural problems, and in the case of international students, academic problems. Dealing with those problems to a degree that allows the individual to function in a new culture is known as adjustment whether it is psychological, sociocultural (behavioural) or academic.

This study explored the process of cross-cultural transition and adjustment for 108 Singaporean student sojourners studying in Australia, New Zealand, People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. An additional 54 home based Singaporean students making an intracultural transition from junior college to university also took part in the study for comparative purposes. A longitudinal design was employed in this research. Data collection took place one month before the students left Singapore, one month after they arrived in their host countries and six months post-arrival. Data were collected at equivalent periods in time from the home based sample with the referent point for that sample being the commencement of university. At the broadest conceptual level this study employed an acculturation framework to understand the process of cross-cultural adjustment of sojourners. More specifically, embedded in that framework were a stress and coping model to describe the process of psychological adjustment and a social learning model to explain the sociocultural adjustment process. Although not previously associated with the acculturation framework, academic adjustment was included in the research on an exploratory basis. Predictive models of adjustment were constructed that employed demographic, expectation, personality, social interaction, acculturating, stress, and coping type variables. Confirmatory factor analysis provided strong empirical evidence that psychological and sociocultural adjustment were related but distinct outcomes. Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that sociocultural adjustment six months after arrival in the host country was predicted by acculturating variables (host identity), social interaction variables (host interaction), and earlier sociocultural adjustment. SEM was also used to develop a predictive longitudinal model of psychological adjustment six months post-arrival. Expectation discrepancies, coping variables (avoidant coping style), and earlier psychological adjustment were included in the model. Employing multiple regression, it was found that academic adjustment was predicted by expectation discrepancies and language ability. Models of intercultural psychological and sociocultural adjustment were found to be applicable in an intracultural context. However, there was little in common between the intercultural and intracultural models of academic adjustment. While the pattern of psychological adjustment over time did not conform to the anticipated pattern, more detailed analysis did provide support for a stress and coping perspective. The course of sociocultural adjustment over time was consistent with a social learning viewpoint. Criticisms of the study, potential applications and recommendations for future research were discussed.