International Students' Personal and Multicultural Strengths: Reducing Acculturative Stress and Promoting Adjustment

Coming to the United States as an international student can be challenging, demanding, and stressful. When they arrive, international students need to locate affordable transportation and housing, adjust to a new climate, learn to communicate in English, and navigate an unfamiliar educational system (Khoo & Abu-Rasain, 1994; Leong & Chou, 1996; Misra, Crist, & Burant, 2003; Pedersen, 1991). In addition to these challenges, international students also experience homesickness; interpersonal isolation; and difficulty reaching out to American peers, negotiating conflicting cultural values, and coping with racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination (Kaczmarek, Matlock, Merta, Ames, & Ross, 1995; Mori, 2000; Olivas & Li, 2006; Yeh & Inose, 2003). The challenges experienced by international students often trigger feelings of uneasiness, insecurity, and loss. The accumulation of practical, cultural, and social difficulties may result in acculturative stress, which is defined as the disorientation that often accompanies cross-cultural transitions (Sandhu & Asrabadi, 1994). The symptoms of acculturative stress are numerous but may include loneliness, sadness, fear, homesickness, cultural identity confusion, and social withdrawal (Johnson & Sandhu, 2007). Furthermore, research has suggested that acculturative stress is related to a variety of negative outcomes for international students, including depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms (Constantine, Okazaki, & Utsey, 2004; Misra et al., 2003; Wei et al., 2007; Wilton & Constantine, 2003). In an effort to prevent such negative outcomes, many university professionals advise international students to rely on their personal and multicultural strengths as a way of reducing acculturative stress and achieving optimal adjustment. For example, international students are frequently advised to take a strengths-based, growth-oriented approach, which will help them reduce acculturative stress and achieve better adjustment (Tseng & Newton, 2002). International students are also encouraged to persist in the face of cultural and interpersonal challenges, develop a sense of resilience, and maintain an optimistic attitude (Lipson & Goodman, 2008; Tseng & Newton, 2002). Finally, international students are often counseled to take an active approach and to initiate frequent contact with American culture. For example, they are encouraged to join on-campus clubs and activities, meet American students, practice their English, and learn about American cultural norms, practices, and traditions (Lipson & Goodman, 2008; Yoon & Portman, 2004). The assumption underlying these recommendations is that international students can rely on their personal and multicultural strengths to alleviate their acculturative stress and achieve positive adjustment. Although these recommendations are widespread in the literature, little research has examined whether a growth-oriented, positive, and culturally open attitude indeed reduces acculturative stress and promotes optimal adjustment among international students. The purpose of our study was to test this assumption by examining three strength-based variables as predictors of international students' acculturative stress and adjustment: personal growth initiative, hardiness, and universal-diverse orientation. They were selected because of their ability to collectively capture the attitudes of personal growth, resilience, and openness that are presumed to reduce acculturative stress and promote optimal adjustment. Following is a description of each of these variables and their hypothesized relationships with acculturative stress and psychological adjustment. * Personal Growth Initiative Personal growth initiative (Robitschek, 1998) refers to individuals' conscious striving to develop and improve themselves across multiple life domains. People who score high on personal growth initiative have a strong desire to grow and consciously work to develop their talents and abilities. …