A Comparative Study Of Social Media's Moderating Effect On Acculturation Between International Students Studying In China And Chinese International Students

With the deepening process of globalization,China has made impressive progress in the field of education in recent years.This has not only attracted numerous foreign students to pursue higher education in China,but also created vast opportunities for Chinese students to study overseas.As such,international students' acculturation has become a key topic in the research field of intercultural communication.Meanwhile,as the Internet gradually penetrates into people's social life,many researchers have shifted their attention to the impact of social media on the acculturating process.Targeting at international students in China and Chinese students studying overseas,this quantitative research aims to investigate how social media(WeChat)influences the relationship between acculturative stress and host-culture orientation.The current research consists of two studies.Study 1 focused on international students in China(n=112)and Study 2 focused on Chinese international students(n=199).Statistical analyses suggested that compared to Chinese international students,international students in China showed a significantly lower intensity of WeChat use,and the two groups differed significantly in three types of motives for using WeChat(social identity gratification,social compensation,and peer communication)and in their level of acculturative stress.Meanwhile,in both groups,acculturative stress was significantly positively correlated with the intensity of WeChat use and the motive of social identity gratification and social compensation,but had no significant connection with the motive of peer communication.Furthermore,Study 1 found no significant aggravating effect of intensity of WeChat use on the relationship between acculturative stress and host-culture orientation among international students in China.However,for Chinese international students in Study 2,intensity of WeChat use was found as an effective buffer against the negative impact of acculturative stress on host-culture orientation,and can therefore promote their attitudes toward host culture.This buffering effect was only significant among those Chinese international students with medium and high level of acculturative stress.It was also found that the ultimate effect of intensity of WeChat use on international students' acculturation depended on their habits of using social media and patterns of online interactions.Both factors affected the attributes and intensity of social media-based support that they obtained online during acculturation.The current research has contributed to the existing literature on social media and acculturation,and provided important implications for facilitating international students' acculturation in the new media era.