THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING LEVEL AMONG FOREIGN NATIONAL MIDWIFERY STUDENTS

Abstract

Intercultural communication is defined as the communication process that occurs between peopleor groups from different cultures. Intercultural communication apprehension, on the other hand, is definedas the anxiety experienced when communicating with people from different groups. This study wasconducted to determine the impact of intercultural communication apprehension level on the professionallearning level among foreign national midwifery students. The data for this cross-sectional study wascollected between February 2023 and April 2023. Prior to the study, approval was obtained from the Socialand Humanities Research Ethics Committee of a University (Date: 27.02.2023 and Number: E-77192459-050.99-224243). The population of the study consisted of foreign national students studying in themidwifery department of a university's health sciences faculty in Turkey (N=179). No sampling wasperformed, and data was collected from 86 students who agreed to participate in the study. The data for thestudy was collected online using the "Personal Information Form," "Sources and Problems of MotivationScale," and "Intercultural Communication Apprehension Scale." SPSS version 23 was used for dataanalysis. Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, and frequency were used to analyze thesociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The relationship between the scales was examinedusing Pearson correlation analysis. The data obtained was evaluated at a significance level of p<0.05 and aconfidence interval of 95%. The mean age of the students is 22.8 ± 1.7. The mean score for the InterculturalCommunication Anxiety Scale (ICAS) is 48.5 ± 8.7, indicating that the students experience a moderatelevel of anxiety. The mean score for the Sources and Problems of Motivation Scale (SPMS) is 88.9 ± 12.There is a statistically significant moderate positive linear relationship between SPMS and ICAS scoresamong the students (r = 0.491, p <0.001).As a result of this study, it was found that first-year students experience more intercultural communicationanxiety compared to other students and as students' intercultural communication anxiety increases, theirsources of motivation and problems also increase.