The roles of training, culture distance, and personality in the adjustment, performance, and social ability of international students in the United States

The purposes of this study were (a) to investigate the effectiveness of cross-cultural training methods and (b) to examine the roles of home/host culture distance and personality on the adjustment, performance, and social ability of international students. For phase one of the study, fifty-one new international students participated in the experimental training sessions. Behavior modeling and documentary/informational training methods in combination were more effective than using the documentary/informational method alone in terms of building culture knowledge. For the second phase, fifty-five new international students (32 of whom overlapped with the phase one participants) completed an initial survey, which assessed culture distance and some aspects of personality, and a five-month follow-up survey, which assessed adjustment, performance, and social ability. Culture distance and personality at time one were found to predict the adjustment and the social ability of international students in the U.S. five months later.