Date of Graduation

1981

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This cross-cultural study surveyed the problems, patterns, and phases of the foreign students' adaptation to an American university. The subjects were 175 foreign students from 33 countries who were enrolled at West Virginia University during the Summer of 1980. The purposes of the study were: (1) to examine the foreign students' psychological, academic, social, personal, and cultural problems; (2) to determine which nationality groups have more social, cultural, and language problems; (3) to determine which one of the two groups (graduate, undergraduate) of foreign students can adjust more appropriately to the American social and academic environments; (4) to determine the degree of association between the favorable and/or unfavorable attitudes of Americans toward the foreign students' attitudes toward Americans, their self-esteem, and academic adjustment; (5) to determine the process of adjustment over time using a cross-sectional approach; and (6) to determine the degree of relationship between the foreign students' satisfaction with the English language skills, cultural discrepancies with Americans, socialization, and a selected number of variables. The data were analyzed using item-by-item frequency of responses, percentages, means, standard deviations, ranges, and coefficient of reliabilities associated with certain scales for descriptive purposes and univariate and multivariate statistical techniques were also used to test 11 research hypotheses. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to find the relationships between variables. The findings of the investigation included: (1) students from Asian and Middle-Eastern countries were found to perceive more language difficulties than the other nationalities; (2) the graduate students were found to have better academic adjustment and satisfaction with sojourns; (3) there was a significantly positive association between the foreign students' perception of American attitudes toward their home countries and students' attitudes toward the Americans (F = 13.20, df = 1/66, p < .01) and the students' academic adjustment (F = 5.73, df = 1/66, p < .05); (4) the adjustment of foreign students to the United States as a function of time was found to follow a U-shaped curve; and (5) there were significantly negative correlations between the foreign students' perceived cultural discrepancies with Americans and their satisfaction with sojourns (r = -0.26, p < .001), socialization (r = -0.25, p < .001), and their internal control (r = -0.20, p < .01).

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