Cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese students in the Netherlands

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of demographic and academic variables, intercultural communication self-efficacy, and multicultural personality dimensions on cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese students (N=168) who have stayed for a couple of months in the Netherlands. The results indicate that different personality dimensions have more or less predictive power depending on the aspects of cross-cultural adaptation. Specifically, emotional stability appears to be a positive predictor for academic performance, psychological well-being, and a negative predictor for experienced difficulties, whereas cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative are more important predictors for indicators of social adjustment, such as having friends and receiving social support. Intercultural communication self-efficacy is related to higher academic performance, fewer experienced difficulties, and more satisfaction with life. In addition, a remarkable finding is that women do better than men do on academic performance, receive more social support and are more satisfied with their lives.