Coping with culture shock: a study of stressors, adjustments and stereotypes among chinese students at bangkok university

Psychological and sociocultural adaptation

Zheng and Berry (1991) reported that the most common coping strategies adopted by the migrant group were wishful thinking, active problem solving, self-blame and withdrawal. Huang, Leong and Wagner (1994) took a somewhat different approach to stress and coping in their study of Chinese American children and suggested that the effectiveness of coping styles would vary by level of acculturation. Their hypotheses received partial support. Situational stressors were more likely to precipitate depression in highly acculturated children who used suppression, problem-solving and diversion as coping strategies (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). In less acculturated children who were exposed to stressors, however, suppression decreased the probability that depression would occur (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001).

Bagley (1993) reported that recent Chinese migrants to Canada experienced more depression and anxiety than long term, established ones and that the physical and mental health profiles of immigrants who had been settled for 20 years or more were similar to

those of Euro-Canadians. This may in part be due to increasing language fluency which has been associated with psychological adjustment in migrants (e.g. Krishnan and Berry, 1992; Mavreas and Bebbington, 1990). Personality factors also make a significant contribution to psychological well-being, particularly mastery (Sam, 1998), an internal locus of control (Neto, 1995), hardiness (Ataca, 1996), a sense of coherence (Aycan and Berry, 1994), and low levels of dogmatism (Taft and Steinkalk, 1985).

Loneliness is a major problem for new migrants, and it has been linked to decrements in life satisfaction (Neto, 1995). Social support, in contrast, has been associated with increased psychological well-being (Biegel, Naparstek and Khan, 1980; Golding and Burnam, 1990).

In addition, the network of supportive relationships that facilitates intercultural adaptation need not be large but may be diverse as both co-ethnics and host nationals can assist immigrants with their emotional and informational needs (Berry, 1997; Neto, 1995).

As would be expected, sociocultural adaptation is a function of resources such as education, income and language fluency, as well as amount of contact with host nationals (Ataca, 1996). Furthermore, it is inversely correlated with perceived discrimination (Aycan and Berry, 1994).

Moreover, Sociocultural adaptation is related to various measures of psychological well-being, including positive self concept and decreased feeling of alienation (Ataca, 1996; Aycan and Berry, 1994). In fact, Scott and Scott (1991) found that cultural skill is more strongly related to self-esteem in immigrants than in natives.