Personality and Acculturation Behavior as Predictors of High School Students' Psychological Adaptation Abroad: A Longitudinal Investigation

• In Event: Teaching International Students: Cultural Adaptation and Lived Experiences

Abstract

International educational mobility is an important instrument for improving young peoples’ multicultural understanding. The present study examined how personality and host- and home-cultural behavioral engagement predict the psychological adaptation of high school students during an academic year abroad. To that end, we analyzed data from the first four waves of the (N = 1,227) and found positive effects of agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and host-cultural behavioral engagement as well as a negative effect of home-cultural behavioral engagement on psychological adaptation. Furthermore, host- and home-cultural behavioral engagement provided a mediating mechanism to explain personality effects on sojourners’ psychological adaptation. Implications for acculturation and personality research and practical implications for the support of student sojourners are discussed.

Authors

• Juan Serrano-Sánchez, Fernuniversität in Hagen

• Julia Zimmermann

• Kathrin Jonkmann, Fernuniversität in Hagen