International Students’ Personal and Multicultural Strengths: Reducing Acculturative Stress and Promoting Adjustment

 Elena S. Yakunina, Ingrid K. Weigold, Arne Weigold, Sanja Hercegovac, and Noha Elsayed

Issues of concerns

· Coming to the United States as an international student can be challenging, demanding, and stressful.

· International students experience homesick- ness; interpersonal isolation; and difficulty reaching out to American peers, and negotiating conflicting cultural values (Kac- zmarek, Matlock, Merta, Ames, & Ross, 1995; Mori, 2000; Olivas & Li, 2006; Yeh & Inose, 2003).

· Acculturative stress is related to a variety of negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms (Constantine, Okazaki, & Utsey, 2004; Misra et al., 2003; Wei et al., 2007; Wilton & Constantine, 2003).

Interventions · Rely on personal and multicultural strengths to alleviate acculturative stress and achieving optimal adjustment

· Take a strengths-based, growth-oriented approach, to help reduce acculturative stress and achieve better adjustment (Tseng & Newton, 2002).

· Develop a sense of resilience, and maintain an optimistic attitude (Lipson & Goodman, 2008; Tseng & Newton, 2002).

Variables

1: Personal growth initiativeAccording to Robitschek et al. (2012), people who score high on personal growth initiative demonstrate high levels of planfulness, strong desire to grow, readiness for change, intentional behavior, and consciously work to develop their talents and abilities. 2: Hardiness Hardiness elicits more positive cognitive appraisals of environmental stressors, while also activating more action- oriented strategies for reducing psychological stress (Maddi et al., 2006). They maintain their confidence, engagement, and enthusiasm, to cope effectively with the initial frustrations of study abroad. 3: Universal-Diverse Orientation Helps in making cross-cultural friendships and to establish connections with American peers by joining more social clubs and activities and, experience fewer cultural conflicts, less acculturative stress, and more optimal cross-cultural adjustment.

Practical Implications· Academic, career, and mental health counselors could ask international students to reflect on their personal and multicultural strengths that they bring to the cross-cultural journey.· Practicing English, developing friendships with other American and international students, joining different student clubs and organizations, increasing their cross-cultural communication, competence and self-efficacy, approaching professors with questions and asking for help, and using the on-campus support services offered by the university.ReferencesFuertes, J. H., Miville, M. L., Mohr, J. J., Sedlacek, W. E., & Gretchen, D. (2000). Factor structure and short form of the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale, Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 33, 157–169Institute of International Education. (2010). Open Doors 2010 fast facts: International students in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/en/research-and-publications/open-doorsJohnson, L. R., & Sandhu, D. S. (2007). Isolation, adjustment, and acculturation issues of international students: Intervention strategies for counselors. In H. Singaravelu & M. Pope (Eds.), A handbook for counseling international students in the United States (pp. 13–37), Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.Kaczmarek, P. G., Matlock, G., Merta, R., Ames, M. H., & Ross, M. (1995). An assessment of international college student adjustment, International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, 17, 241–247, doi: 10.1007/BF01407740