Chinese Students' Acculturation In The U.K. And Their Use Of Xiaonei

Previous studies have explored the relationship between sojourners'mass media appropriation habits and social-cultural as well as their psychological adaptation in a new country, but little attention has been paid to the role of the internet in acculturation studies. The internet is wielding an immense influence especially upon youths transcending time and space boundaries. The popularity of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook.com and Xiaonei.com in recent years has caught the attention from both social and academic venues. While numerous studies of SNS largely centers around self-presentation, privacy, and friendship, very few touches upon what part SNS plays in sojourners'acculturation process and helping them adapted to the new environment. To address the limitations of literature, motivated by the author's personal experience in the United Kingdom, this study investigates the relationship between Chinese students'acculturation process in the United Kingdom and their use of the ethnic social networking site Xiaonei. A sequential mixed methods design was adopted so as to get a better understanding of the phenomenon. At the first phase of my qualitative study, an initial observation was followed up by face-to-face interviews to approach the research questions. Several themes regarding difficulties met in the acculturation process, motives for Xiaonei use as well as the relationship between Xiaonei use and life in the U.K., emerged in the in-depth analysis of the twelve interview transcripts. Based upon qualitative findings, four hypotheses were posited, which predicted association between the ethnic SNS Xiaonei use and psychological acculturation in particular. A web survey was used in the second quantitative study phase to measure 4 major variables—sociodemographics, Xiaonei use intensity, perceived social support from Xiaonei, and psychological acculturation. Data analysis of 175 Chinese students in the U.K. suggested that age, length of stay in the U.K. and perceived social support from Xiaonei were closely associated with Xiaonei use intensity. Among the individual types of support, emotional and companionship support were found to be significant predictors for levels of engagement on Xiaonei. Besides, the positive relationship between perceived social support from Xiaonei and psychological acculturation level was also detected even when taking sociodemographic variables into account. These findings highlight the potential of SNS in aiding cross-cultural adaptation process, and raise new directions and avenues connecting new media and acculturation research.