| The purpose of my study was to test Searle and Ward's (1990, 1991) model of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation using structural equation modeling on international students at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and to further examine the role of interpersonal relationships on adjustment.;The psychological and socio-cultural adaptation model of sojourner adjustment has become dominant and well-tested in the cross-cultural transition literature. Recent research has shown that the type of friendships an individual builds abroad (co-national, host-national and local social ties) can impact psychological adjustment and socio-cultural adaptation. The socio-cognitive variable, need for cognitive closure (NCC), has also been investigated as a predictor for both social ties and psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. My study tested a model that included all of these predictors.;A sample of 141 individuals representing 40 different countries completed surveys, of which 69.9% were male, and 30.1% were female. Participants' average age was 22.35 years (SD = 3.64) with a range of 18 to 40. When non-significant paths were removed from the SEM analyses, significant paths included a negative relationship between co-national ties and psychological adjustment (PWB; beta = -.18), a positive relationship between host national ties and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; beta = .29), and a negative relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; beta = -.18). There was a positive relationship between low cultural distance (CD) and psychological adjustment (beta = .29) and between low cultural distance (CD) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; beta = .34). Finally, there was a positive relationship between language proficiency (LANG) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; beta = .30).;The resultant variables in my model accounted for approximately 10% of psychological adjustment and 30% of socio-cultural adjustment. Consistent with predictions, more host-national ties led to greater sociocultural adaptation, yet having more co-national ties resulted in poorer psychological adjustment. As expected, language proficiency led to better sociocultural adaptation, and high cultural distance had a negative impact on both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. These findings offer support for the utility of Ward and Searle's conceptualization of adaptation in a new, diverse set of international students. |
