Predicting Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies from socio-demographic variables and social ties

Abstract

Different acculturation strategies (i.e. integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) tend to contribute to different adaptation outcomes for international students. The current study examines Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies under the influence of sociodemographic variables and social ties they developed in the host country. A group of Chinese international students in Belgium (N = 183) participated in an online survey. The results indicate that integration was the most commonly adopted strategy among Chinese international students in Belgium, followed by separation, marginalization and assimilation. The results from three separate multiple regressions show that English proficiency, local language proficiency, prior adaptation experience and female were significant predictors of Chinese students’ social ties (i.e. host-national ties, international ties and co-national ties). The discriminant analysis identified host-national ties, international ties, co-national ties, local language proficiency and prior adaptation experience as important variables that can distinguish Chinese students’ acculturation strategies.