Maladaptive Perfectionism and College Adjustment of International Students in Korea: A Moderated Mediation Model of Social Support

Gina Lee,Hyojin Cho,Tae In Park

doi:10.3390/su12114729

Abstract

Due to the increasing demand for international education, the number of international students in Korea has been rapidly increasing. Accordingly, well adjusting to college has been a main interest for both academic institutions and international students as it is key to their success. Previous studies have revealed that maladaptive perfectionism (MP) hampers the college adjustment (CA) of international students, yet little is known about its underlying mechanism. To fill in this gap, this study examined the mediating effect of acculturative stress (AS) in between maladaptive perfectionism and college adjustment; the moderating effect of social support (SS) in the relation between acculturative stress and college adjustment; and the moderated mediating effect of social support in the causal pathway from maladaptive perfectionism to acculturative stress to college adjustment. Results showed a partial mediating effect of acculturative stress, a moderating effect, and a moderated mediating effect of social support. This implies that social support is an essential factor that helps international students better adjust to the new collegiate environment by alleviating their stress caused by maladaptive perfectionism and acculturative stress.

Highlights

In the wave of globalization, international education has become a crucial part of higher education
As the current study only focused on the maladaptive aspects of perfectionism, four subscales, namely, concern over mistakes (9 items); doubts about actions (4 items); parental expectations (5 items); and parental criticism (4 items) were measured
The results clearly show that acculturative stress is an important factor mediating the relation between maladaptive perfectionism and college adjustment

Summary

Introduction

In the wave of globalization, international education has become a crucial part of higher education. In 2016, the number of students who enrolled in foreign educational institutions pursuing a tertiary degree has skyrocketed to nearly five million, which is more than triple of that in 1990 [1]. Along with globalization and the surge of international education, there has been a massive influx of international students. As of 2018, approximately 150,000 international students enrolled in higher education institutions, those who mostly came from developing countries including China (n = 68,537, 48.2%), Vietnam (n = 27,061, 19.0%), Mongolia (n = 6768, 4.8%), followed by Japan (n = 3977, 2.8%) and the United States (n = 2746, 1.9%) [2]. While the number of international students in Korea has been rising, their difficulties in transitioning and adjusting to the unfamiliar environment have emerged as a major interest

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Conclusion