Psychological adaptation of foreign university students

The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate the psychological adaptation problems of foreign students, who have come to Turkey to receive higher education at a state university, in terms of the variables of cultural distance perceptions, social support perceptions, acculturation attitudes, general state of health, self-efficacy beliefs and life satisfaction. Psychological adaptations of foreign students were examined within the framework of Berry’s (1997) theory of acculturation. The relational study model, one of the general study types, was used in the study. The population of the study consisted of foreign students who are studying at a state university. Since the study aims to reach the whole population, no sample was chosen for the study. The total number of foreign students was 146 in the 2014-2015 academic year. Psychological adaptations of the students were examined with the variables of age, acculturation attitudes, perceived social support, cultural distance, self-efficacy and duration of stay in Turkey. The quantitative data were analyzed via the SPSS 21 package software. The findings of the study showed that the answers that foreign students have given to the life satisfaction scale are at the level of “slightly agree” in both genders. The answers that they have given to the general health scale about how their health is now and has been recently in general are at the level of “less than usual”. The most important variable that predicts the psychological adaptations of students is acculturation attitudes. Among the acculturation attitudes, the students preferred the integration attitude. According to the results of the classification by geographical region, there are similarities in the categories of religious beliefs, family life, customs, world-views, social activities and standards of living of the foreign students. However, there are differences in the categories of clothing, mode of communication, values, and friendship, language, and food culture.