The advising alliance for international and domestic graduate students: Measurement invariance and implications for academic stress.

Abstract

We expanded the focus of a prior study of international graduate student advising relationships (Rice et al., 2009) to examine advising experiences of both international and domestic students. International (n = 434) and domestic (n = 387) students completed the Advisory Working Alliance Inventory (AWAI-S; Schlosser & Gelso, 2001) and measures of advising experiences, perceived academic stress, and desire to change advisor. Measurement invariance analyses suggested that a 23-item AWAI-S showed support for scalar invariance. A bifactor structure showed superior fit to the 3-factor model or a second-order factor model for the AWAI-S. International and domestic graduate students did not differ in ratings of general alliance, academic stress, or desire to change advisors. General alliance was strongly related to less academic stress and less desire to change advisors. International students who felt disrespected by their advisors were more likely to be academically stressed than domestic students. Structured mentoring experiences were associated with lower stress and less desire to change, and this effect was similar in both international and domestic students. Overall, results suggested that the current level of measurement, and possibly theory development, regarding the advisory alliance is good at identifying generic satisfaction but weaker at differentiating components of the alliance.