Psychosocial Aspects of Adaptation of International Students in Pakistan

Abstract

This study examined the psychosocial aspects (acculturation stress, ethnic discrimination, nostalgia, and sentimentality) of socio cultural and psychological adaptation of international students in Pakistan. Sample of 143 international students was taken from different government and private universities of Pakistan. Measures of Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (Sandhu & Asarbadi, 1994), Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version (Brondolo et al., 2005), Index of Nostalgia Proneness (Holak, Havlena, & Matveev, 2006), Emotionality Subscale of the HEXACO Personality Inventory (Lee & Ashton, 2009), Brief Psychological Adaptation Scale (Demes & Geeraert, 2014), and Brief Socio-Cultural Adaptation Scale (Demes & Geeraert, 2014) were used. Results showed that ethnic discrimination, acculturation stress, nostalgia, and sentimentality were negatively correlated with psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. Sentimentality moderated the relationship of ethnic discrimination with socio-cultural and psychological adaptation. Moreover, sentimentality also moderated the relationship between nostalgia and psychological adaptation.