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China has become one of the leading study abroad destinations worldwide. Recent research also indicates that international students encounter diverse life challenges and mental health issues in China. Therefore, scholars have shown increasing interest in their adjustment in Chinese social and academic settings. Seeking theoretical guidance from the Job Demands-Resources Model with mediation and moderation assumptions, our study aimed to test the dual processes (i.e., the health impairment process and the motivational process) leading to academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment, among international students sojourning in China. Using a convenience sampling method, our study recruited 1,001 participants (535 males and 466 females; M.sub.age = 22.73; SD = 1.62) who completed an online survey including scales of perceived cultural distance (contextual demands), social support from local members (contextual resources), coping self-efficacy (personal resources), acculturative stress, intercultural engagement, as well as three types of cross-cultural adjustment (academic, sociocultural, and psychological adjustment). Results based on the structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses indicated that perceived cultural distance had indirect relationships with the three types of adjustment through the mediator of acculturative stress. Social support from locals had indirect relationships with the three types of adjustment through the mediators of acculturative stress and intercultural engagement. Coping self-efficacy had indirect relationships with academic and sociocultural adjustment through the mediator of intercultural engagement. Additionally, social support from locals was revealed as a moderator that buffered the relationship between perceived cultural distance and acculturative stress. These mediated and moderated relationships not only confirmed the dual processes underlying international student adjustment, but also added new knowledge of how demands and resources can interplay to predict the dual processes., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1] , Qian Meng [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) https://ror.org/02rkvz144, grid.27446.33, 0000 0004 1789 9163, Northeast Normal University, , 5268, Renmin Street, Changchun, China (2) grid.440668.8, 0000 0001 [...]

Guided by Lent's (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51, 482-509, 2004 (See CR36)) social cognitive model of well-being, we proposed a conceptual model for international students sojourning in China, with proactive personality, host university support, social self-efficacy and host culture adoption as predictors and psychosocial and academic adjustment as outcomes. Altogether 789 international students were recruited for testing the model. Results from testing the model showed that proactive personality had direct or indirect relationships with social self-efficacy, academic and psychosocial adjustment. Host university support had direct or indirect relationships with social self-efficacy, host culture adoption, and psychosocial adjustment. Social self-efficacy had direct or indirect relationships with host culture adoption and psychosocial adjustment. Host culture adoption had direct relationships with psychosocial adjustment. We also expanded Lent's model by incorporating moderation perspectives, revealing that host university support moderated the relationships between proactive personality and psychological adjustment, as well as the relationships of social self-efficacy to host culture adoption and academic adjustment. These findings largely supported the social cognitive model of well-being and revealed that the personality trait and the social cognitive variables functioned uniquely, as reflected in the above-mentioned direct, indirect, and moderated relationships, in predicting the different domains of international student adjustment in China., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1] , Jian Zhang [sup.1] , Qian Meng [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.27446.33, 0000 0004 1789 9163, Northeast Normal University, , Renmin Street, 5268, Changchun, China (2) [...]

Due to the recent conflicts between China and South Korea (mainly the THAAD incident), we intended to examine whether mediated intergroup contact through TV series and films can be beneficial for improving their intergroup relations. Moreover, a novel type of indirect intergroup contact was proposed and termed as extended mediated contact. The general objective is to investigate and differentiate its relationships with intergroup relations (i.e. intergroup attitudes and post-conflict forgiveness) with those of mediated contact. Chinese university students were selected as the sample of our study and 366 participants completed an online survey. Results from the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that both mediated and extended mediated contact positively predicted cultural affinity, which, in turn, positively predicted both intergroup attitudes and post-conflict forgiveness. As compared to mediated contact, extended mediated contact exerted significant but weaker effects. The bootstrapping method in SEM revealed that cultural affinity played a mediating role in the relationships of the two types of contact to intergroup attitudes and forgiveness., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1] , Qian Meng [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.27446.33, 0000 0004 1789 9163, Faculty of Education, Northeast Normal University, , 5268, Renmin Street, Changchun, China (2) grid.440668.8, [...]

Guided by multi-layered ecological model, this study examined Chinese international students' intercultural interactions with two distinctive groups of cultural 'others': multi-national students and domestic students. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews with Chinese students at three Belgian universities, the research unraveled some essence of this cohort's intercultural interactions: their perceptions of cultural environment around them, friendships developed with the two distinctive groups and multi-dimensional inhibitors for intercultural interactions. Chinese students also perceived the development of global competence, but mainly through contact with multi-national students. The compatriot network and online social software play an important role in local cultural learning, compensating the lack of host contact., Author(s): Qian Meng [sup.1] , Jingfu Li [sup.2] , Chang Zhu [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.440668.8, 0000 0001 0006 0255, Changchun University of Science and Technology, , Weixing Road, 7186, [...]

This current study qualitatively explored Chinese international students' coping strategies and social support resources in dealing with academic stressors. A consensual qualitative research (CQR) methodology was used on analyzing data gathered from semi-structured interviews. We identified an array of academic stressors and differentiated them according to the frequency labels (from general to rare). Academic competency, academic culture shock, academic resources, intercultural communication and pressure were found to be the main sources of Chinese students' academic stressors. In response, Chinese international students tended to utilize different coping strategies and social support resources to deal with academic stressors. Specifically, they generally employed problem-coping strategies to deal with competency-related challenges, but more preferred forbearance coping for other types of academic stressors. Furthermore, co-national peers emerged as the primary source of Chinese students' social support in academic learning, followed by support from multi-national students, university/tutors, and host students, respectively. The results obtained from the data implied that it was the heritage culture, instead of the host academic context, that strongly affected Chinese students' behavioral features in class and their responses to academic stressors. We provided practical implications for the host university, as well as interventions at the individual and institutional levels., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1] [sup.2] , Chang Zhu [sup.2] , Qian Meng [sup.2] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.27446.33, 0000 0004 1789 9163, Northeast Normal University, , No. 5268, Renmin Street, [...]

Chinese international students often face daunting challenges of building intercultural networks and receiving support from outgroup members. To facilitate their social integration, this study proposed a research model investigating the relationships of online and direct intergroup contact to social capital in intercultural networks (social support resource networks built among culturally different students). We also examined whether the three dimensions of global competence (global knowledge, attitudes, and skills) can mediate these relationships and whether direct contact can moderate the relationships of online contact to global competence and social capital. Data were collected from 210 Chinese students in Belgium. The results revealed that direct contact was positively related to both bonding and bridging social capital, through the mediators of global skills and attitudes. Online contact was related to the predicted variables in a more complex way. The moderation analyses revealed direct contact as an important moderator that modified effects of online contact. Specifically, online contact was positively related to global skills and bonding social capital at low, rather than high, levels of direct contact. Besides, online contact was negatively related to global attitudes at low, rather than high, levels of direct contact., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1], Qian Meng [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.27446.33, 0000 0004 1789 9163, Northeast Normal University, , 5268, Renmin Street, Changchun, China (2) grid.440668.8, 0000 0001 0006 0255, [...]

Non-native English speaking international students residing in non-English speaking countries were found to face the challenges from inadequate command of both English and the host language. This study simultaneously examined the influences of language proficiency (i.e., English proficiency and local language proficiency) on social and academic adaptation, through the mediating variables of social connectedness in mainstream society and social support satisfaction among Chinese international students in a non-English speaking European country. A sample of 202 Chinese international students responded to a web-based survey. Results from structural equation modeling analysis indicated that English and local language proficiency explained 42% of the total variance in social connectedness in mainstream society; social connectedness in mainstream society explained 68% of the variance in satisfaction with support from host members; taken together, social support satisfaction and English proficiency accounted for 47% of the variance in social adaptation and 22% in academic adaptation, respectively. Results from the bootstrapping method also revealed that social connectedness and social support satisfaction fully mediated the relationships between local language proficiency and social/academic adaptation and partially mediated the relationships between English proficiency and social/academic adaptation., Author(s): Chun Cao [sup.1] [sup.2], Qian Meng [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.8767.e, 0000 0001 2290 8069, Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, , Pleinlaan 2, 1050, [...]

This study examined global competence of Chinese international students sojourning in a non-Anglophone European country as a mediator between foreign language proficiency (i.e., English and local language) and social and academic adaptation, and social connectedness in international community. A sample of 206 Chinese students in Belgium responded to a web-based survey. Results from structural equation modeling analysis indicated both English and local language proficiency were significant predictors of global competence and global competence, in turn, influenced significantly the participants' social connectedness, social and academic adaptation. Specifically, English and local language proficiency taken together explained 32% of the variance in global competence, and global competence explained 55% of the variance in social adaptation and 38% of the variance in academic adaptation, respectively. In addition, English proficiency and global competence explained 33% of the variance in social connectedness in international community. Bootstrapping methods were employed to examine the mediating roles of global competence. The results revealed that global competence partially mediated the relationship between English proficiency and social connectedness and fully mediated the relationships between foreign language proficiency (i.e., both English and local language) and social and academic adaptation., Author(s): Qian Meng [sup.1] [sup.2] , Chang Zhu [sup.1] , Chun Cao [sup.1] [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 0000 0001 2290 8069, grid.8767.e, , Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussel, [...]