Comparative Study of Intercultural Sensitivity of College Students in Two Distinctive Institutions in the US

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Intercultural Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Adopting Chen and Starosta’s (1997) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS), this study compared overall intercultural sensitivity of college students in two distinctive institutions in the U.S; a mid-sized state university in the south and a small faith-based liberal arts school in the mid-west. In addition, this study examined if students’ personal characters and perceived environments of institutions as well as classes are related to their level of intercultural sensitivity. The results of online survey with 437 randomly selected students (N=271 from the mid-sized state university in south and N=166 from the small liberal arts school in mid-west) showed that students in the mid-sized state university are more inter-culturally sensitive than their counterparts in two dimensions of Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS). Additionally, this study presented that both two environment variables and one of two personal character variables are positively related to student’s Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS).

Authors

• Eun-Jeong Han, John Carroll U

• Yunying Zhang, Austin Peay State U