Predicting cultural adjustment outcomes from nonverbal communication skills, cultural variables, and acculturative stress

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether international students' nonverbal communication skills; cultural behaviors, beliefs, and values; and acculturative stress levels are related to various aspects of cultural adjustment (social difficulties, academic achievement, and psychological functioning). The first goal of the study was to ascertain whether nonverbal decoding ability is associated with cross-cultural adaptation difficulties in these domains. The second goal of the study was to examine Triandis'' (1995) model of acculturation, which suggests that the greater the cultural distance, i.e., the more differences between people's home and host culture, the greater the level of difficulty that individuals will have during cultural adjustment. The third goal of the study was an empirical test of several acculturation models, which indicate that cultural adjustment is a stressful process; the present study evaluated whether acculturative stress functions as a mediator of the relationship between cultural variables and adjustment outcomes. A total of 193 international students from North and South America, Europe, South Asia, and East Asia completed the study. Results suggest that cultural variables and acculturative stress are strongly linked to psychological functioning and social difficulties, while emotion recognition skills are weakly or indirectly correlated with adjustment outcomes. Further, acculturative stress serves as a mediator between acculturation variables and cultural adjustment outcomes.