Investigating The Acculturation Strategies And Adaptation Outcomes Of Chinese Students In Germany

In an increasingly globalized world, there is a growing need to understand and enhance the intercultural adaptation of immigrants and sojourners. As a highly visible minority population, international students are inevitably experiencing social and psychological challenges in many other cultures. Studying cultural adaptation has been one of the early themes in the field of intercultural communication studies. But most acculturation research has been conducted on student sojourners in the USA or other English-speaking countries. The present study attempts to fill the gap by studying the acculturation strategies and the adaptation outcomes, both psychologically and socio-culturally, of Chinese students in Germany. It is speculated that student sojourners'acculturation processes, due to unique aspects of the German culture and education system, may be complicated both regarding the strategies they choose and their adaptation outcomes.The present project is composed of two studies. The first study tested an initial instrument with 50 participants who volunteered via email surveys. Results were analyzed, findings considered, problems noted, and a revised instrument was generated and checked with experts. For the second study, the main and broader survey, this revised three-part questionnaire gathered information about acculturation strategies, life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological problems, sociocultural adaptation and demographic factors, then analyzed how Chinese students in Germany acculturate, how well they adapt and the relationship between the strategies applied and the outcomes of their adaptation (from 132 valid responses).The major findings conclude that integration, compared to the other three strategies (assimilation, separation and marginalization) in Berry's quadrant acculturation model, was the most preferred, yet, when examining specific life domains, acculturation strategies varied accordingly in public and personal domains. This research also shows that the types of acculturation strategies selected can predict respondents'life satisfaction, sense of loneliness and sociocultural difficulties. Those who aim to be"integrators"generally experience higher life satisfaction, lower sense of loneliness and fewer sociocultural difficulties. Demographic factors such as age, length of stay and German proficiency are positively correlated with gratifying adaptation outcomes. The study provides encouraging results for future intercultural studies on international student adaptation and acculturation for similar populations or contexts.