A Study Of The Relationship Between Cultural Intelligence And Intercultural Adaptation

The number of international students in China is booming in recent years,leading to the trends of popularization and low age.Because of regional and cultural differences,international students confront difficulties of living and learning in China,which affects students' physical and mental health.As a result,the intercultural adaptation of international students in China attracts more attention,at the same time,cultural diversity environment puts forward higher requirements for the cultural intelligence of international students in China.In different cultural contexts,international students' ability to cope with cultural differences and uncertainties has effect on their intercultural adaptation.Thus this study investigates international students' cultural intelligence and intercultural adaptation,and the relationship between them,which is positive to help students to overcome cultural barriers and adapt to new cultural environments.Intercultural adaptation refers to an individual's adaptation in an intercultural environment,including psychological adaptation,sociocultural adaptation and academic adaptation.Cultural intelligence is the ability to solve difficulties in intercultural contexts,including meta-cognitive,cognitive,motivational and behavioral cultural intelligence.Based on the theories of cultural intelligence and intercultural adaptation,quantitative and qualitative analysis is adopted.Questionnaires and interviews for international students at Henan University of Technology is used as a case study,and SPSS 16.0 is adopted to analyze data.The study aims to investigate how they performed in intercultural adaptation and cultural intelligence,on which,the study explores the relationship between cultural intelligence and intercultural adaptation.The results show that:(1)The means of intercultural adaptation(psychological adaptation,sociocultural adaptation and academic adaptation)of international students at Henan University of Technology are smaller than 3,thus they are in good condition.Academic adaptation is better compared with psychological and sociocultural adaptation.Cultural intelligence of international students is normal.(2)Personal factors of international students have significant effects on their cultural intelligence and intercultural adaptation,including gender,international experience,educational leveland religious identity.(3)Four dimensions of cultural intelligence predict three dimensions of intercultural adaptation positively.Meta-cognitive cultural intelligence has the most significant impact on psychological,sociocultural and academic adaptation.The study suggests that international students in China are supposed to adapt to changing environment and to reduce negative feeling while maintaining their own cultural subjectivity and religious identity.Besides,higher education institutions should foster the meta-cognitive cultural intelligence of international students and respect their faith to avoid religious and cultural conflicts.Further study is supposed to testify the four-dimensional structure of cultural intelligence and to add intervening variables,such as social support,so as to understand the relationship between cultural intelligence and intercultural adaptation accurately.