The Relationships Of Chinese International Students’ Adult Attachment,MPQ, And Cross Cultural Adjustment

The present study examines the relationship of different attachment styles with multicultural personality and cross cultural adjustment. A sample of 239 Chinese students studying abroad completed measures for adult attachment, multicultural personality questionnaire and indicators of psychological and sociocultural adjustment.Results are that for some demographic variables, significant differences were found on cross cultural adjustment:older international students had better psychological and sociocultural adjustment than younger students. In addition, significant differences on attachment avoidance and cultural empathy could be shown. Positive relationships were found between attachment anxiety and psychological adjustment on the one hand and sociocultural adjustment on the other. But no relationship was found between attachment avoidance and cross cultural adjustment. Significant relations were found between adult attachment and the multicultural personality questionnaire dimensions, particularly emotional stability and open-mindedness. Adult attachment was able to explain variance in psychological and sociocultural adjustment beyond the variance explained by the multicultural personality questionnaire dimensions.Dividing the two adult attachment dimensions into four attachment types, we found that most of the Chinese students had a secure attachment style. For demographic variables, no significant differences on the four attachment types were found.Finally, four Chinese students studying abroad were interviewed using a semi-structured procedure in order to verify the quantitative data’s outcome, especially why attachment avoidance had no relationship with psychological and sociocultural adjustment. The interviews show that attachment avoidance is different from general social avoidance, and that attachment avoidance has no relationship with cross cultural adaptation.