Abstract
There is an array of reasons why acculturation can be stressful, and acculturative stress can be triggered by a plethora of factors. The aim of the study was to identify factors associated with acculturative stress among international students enrolled in a public medical university from Romania. 265 students were included in the research. Sociodemographic, academic, and family data, comfortability with living in study city, satisfaction with administrative staff, colleagues, and professors and Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students were gathered. Data have been processed using SPSS Statistics v23.0.0 for MAC.OSX. Female students are more prone to experience homesickness and stress due to change compared to male students. International students with Romanian origins had lower scores on perceived hate and stress due to change/culture shock compared to those with no Romanian origins. Students with relatives or friends enrolled in the same university had significantly lower levels of acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, perceived hate/rejection, and general/nonspecific concerns. Age and year of study are associated with homesickness and stress due to change/culture shock. The existence of factors associated with acculturative stress demand institutional, social, and psychological support for international students.
Highlights
Universities all over the world accommodate a large number of international students
The choice to study abroad has a substantial impact on the student and the acculturation process can lead to acculturative stress and difficulties adjusting to the environment of the host country
When taking into account the existence of other relatives enrolled in the same university, the results showed several statistically significant differences between international students in terms of acculturative stress (t ð263Þ = −2:062, p = 0:040), perceived discrimination (t ð263Þ = −2:299, p = 0:022), perceived hate/rejection (t ð263Þ = −2:345, p = 0:020), and nonspecific concerns (t ð263Þ = −2:031, p = 0:043)
Summary
Universities all over the world accommodate a large number of international students. Acculturation is the process of both cultural and psychological change that occurs when two or more cultural groups (along with their individual members) come into contact [3] It involves changes on two major levels: the group level (it entails changes in social structures and institutions and in cultural practices) and the individual level (it comprises the change of an individual’s behaviors). All these changes are the result of a long-term process that should not be conceptualized as unidirectional, in that immigrants assimilate into their adopted country, but the host culture does not change [4]. In the specific context of academic relationship, teachers working with international students must adapt themselves to multicultural and multilingual groups and must adjust their teaching styles to diminish the barriers related to language, cultural, ethnicity, etc
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