CORRELATES OF HOME AND HOST COUNTRY ACQUAINTANCESHIP AMONG FOREIGN MEDICAL RESIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

One hundred seventy foreign postgraduate medical students who were training in this country were asked to report the frequency of their personal contacts with their home countrymen and their United States hosts, their attitudes toward their home countries, their motivations for seeking specialty training in the United States, and their satisfaction with their training programs and the United States. It was found that frequency of their personal contacts with their home countrymen had a prominent effect upon nationalistic attitudes, motivation, and adjustment. Overall results were explained in accordance with reference group theory; and its corollary, anticipatory socialization (acculturation), was utilized to explain the differences observed among the subject groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]