Domains of Cross-Cultural Adjustment

This study examines the dimensionality of a new measure of international students’ adjustment using a sample of 189 international students from a public European University. Drawing on earlier conceptualizations of cross-cultural adjustment as a person-environment fit and a previous scale measuring adjustment from the expatriate literature, this study shows that this scale can be meaningfully adapted to the higher education context. Confirmatory factor analyses identified a stable 8-factor structure with adequate psychometric properties. Descriptive analysis confirms that international students are fairly adjusted in a number of distinct domains. The findings provide criterion-related validity by showing positive associations between host social interaction and host connectedness and students’ adjustment. This study contributes offers a theoretically based scale that assesses international students’ adjustment on a wide range of dimensions. It puts forward a useful tool for higher education counsellors and support services to monitor international students’ adjustment and avoid adjustment difficulties.

Validation of the French ADNM-20 in the assessment of emotional difficulties resulting from COVID-19 quarantine and outbreak

Background Multiple psychological consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine have been described. However, there is a lack of global conceptualization. We argue that the stressful aspects of the situation, the multiple environmental consequences of the outbreak, and the diversity of symptoms observed in such a situation, suggest that Adjustment disorder (AD) is a promising way to conceptualize the psychological consequences of the outbreak and quarantine. The first aim of the study was to validate the French version of the ADNM. The second aim was to set out adjustment difficulties resulting from COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine. Method We recruited 1010 (840 women, 170 men) who consented online to participate. They filled out the French ADNM, visual analogic scales, HADS, IES, and the COPE, to evaluate coping strategies. Results We confirmed the factor structure of the ADNM and we found good psychometric properties. We found that 61.3% of participants presented an adjustment disorder related to COVID-19 outbreak. We found multiple risk factors and protective factors to AD due to quarantine and outbreak. We also identified the coping strategies negatively and positively associated with AD. Conclusion Adjustment disorder is a relevant concept to understand psychological manifestations caused by quarantine and outbreak. The French ANDM has good psychometric properties to evaluate such manifestations. The association between coping strategies and AD symptoms suggest that CBT may be the best intervention to help people suffering from AD.

Family Function and Child Adjustment Difficulties in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Study

To estimate specific proximal and distal effects of COVID-19-related restrictions on families on children’s adjustment problems, we conducted a six-site international study. In total, 2516 parents from Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America living with a young child (Mage = 5.77, SD = 1.10, range = 3 to 8 years, 47.9% female) completed an online survey between April and July 2020. The survey included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and family risk factors (parent distress, parent–child conflict, couple conflict, and household chaos) as well as a scale to index COVID-19-related family disruption. Our analyses also included public data on the stringency of national restrictions. Across the six sites, parental responses indicated elevated levels of hyperactivity, conduct, and emotion problems in children from families characterized by heightened levels of parent distress, parent–child conflict, and household chaos. In contrast, increased peer problems were more strongly related to COVID-19-related social disruption and stringency measures. Mediation models demonstrated that associations between COVID-19 social disruption and child difficulties could be explained by parental distress. Taken together, these results suggest that although the experience of the pandemic differed across countries, associations between COVID-19-related family experiences and child adjustment difficulties were similar in their nature and magnitude across six different contexts. Programs to support family resilience could help buffer the impact of the pandemic for two generations.

South Korean college freshmen students' perceptions of happiness during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020

Happiness is an important factor influencing academic performance, and many college freshmen have experienced adjustment difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. We applied Q methodology to explore South Korean freshmen students' perceptions of happiness in 2020. Participants were divided into three groups according to perceptions of happiness: (a) those who considered relationships as vital for happiness, (b) those who considered freedom to have new experiences as vital for happiness, and (c) those who considered setting and achieving goals as vital for happiness. These findings can serve as basic data for the development of curricula and programs to help college freshmen adapt to college life.

A Cross-Cultural Study on Attachment and Adjustment Difficulties in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Self-Control in Italy, Spain, China, and Poland

From a socio-ecological perspective, individuals are influenced by the interplay of individual, relational, and societal factors operating as a broader system. Thereby, to support youth adjustment during the critical adolescence period, the interplay between these factors should be investigated. This study aimed to investigate cross-cultural differences in adolescents’ maternal and paternal attachment, adolescents’ adjustment difficulties and self-control, and in their association. N = 1000 adolescents (mean (M) age = 16.94, SD = 0.48; 45.90% males) from China, Italy, Spain, and Poland participated by completing self-report measures. Results showed cross-country similarities and differences among the considered variables and their associative pattern. Moreover, conditional process analysis evaluating the association between maternal vs. paternal attachment and adjustment difficulties, mediated by self-control, and moderated by country, was performed. Maternal attachment directly, and indirectly through greater self-control, influenced adjustment difficulties in all four countries. This association was stronger among Spaniards. Paternal attachment influenced directly, and indirectly through self-control, on adolescents’ adjustment difficulties only in Italy, Spain, and Poland, and was stronger among Polish adolescents. For Chinese adolescents, paternal attachment solely associated with adjustment difficulties when mediated by self-control. Thus, results highlighted both similarities and differences across countries in the interplay between maternal vs. paternal attachment and self-control on adolescents’ adjustment difficulties. Implications are discussed.

Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation and Emotion Lability/Negativity Among Chinese Preschool Children

The present study explored the role of emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as a moderator in the relation between child social avoidance and social adjustment (i.e., interpersonal skills, asocial behavior, peer exclusion) in Chinese culture. Participants were N = 194 children (102 boys, 92 girls, Mage = 70.82 months, SD = 5.40) recruited from nine classrooms in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed with mothers rating children’s social avoidance and teachers rating children’s emotion regulation, emotion lability/negativity and social adjustment outcomes. The results indicated that the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more negative among children lower in emotion regulation, but not significant for children with higher emotion regulation. In contrast, the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more positive among children higher in emotion lability/negativity, but not significant for children with lower emotion lability/negativity. This study informs us about how emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity are jointly associated with socially avoidant children’s development. As well, the findings highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance in Chinese culture.

An Exploration on the Attachment, Acculturation, and Psychosocial Adjustment of Chinese International Students in Japan

In this study, we selected Chinese students (N = 277) studying in Japan as research participants to examine the relation among their attachment, acculturation, and psychosocial adjustment. The study’s first finding revealed that Chinese students studying in Japan had a better adjustment outcome than those in America in terms of sociocultural adjustment but not psychological adjustment. The second set of findings from the results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that psychological distress and sociocultural adjustment could be predicted by attachment anxiety and avoidance. Third, we found a positive correlation between acculturation to the host culture and sociocultural adjustment difficulties. Fourth, we did not find a correlation between acculturation to the host culture and attachment anxiety and avoidance. We offer a discussion on the findings and limitations in light of the unique Japanese sociocultural context.