Living Life in Two Worlds: Acculturative Stress among Asian International Graduate Student Parents and Spouses

INTRODUCTIONIncreasing ease of travel, new methods of long-distance communication, and the globalization of economic systems have introduced new family situations and challenges. Some families maintain ties and commitments to multiple countries at once. These families have been called transnational (Basch, Glick-Schiller, & Szanton-Blanc, 1994; Portes, Guarnizo, & Landort, 1999; Schmalzbauer, 2004). Transnational families simultaneously are incorporated into the host society while holding strong ties to home (Schmalzbauer, 2004).One type of transnational situation occurs among international students. The internationalization of education has opened doors for hundreds of thousands of students to venture into new experiences outside of their home countries. According to Paige (1990), international students are individuals who temporarily reside in a country outside their country of citizenship to participate in an educational program. This type of transnationalism differs from many other types in that the students may be "in limbo," not sure if they will remain in the host country or return home.In 2000, a total of 547,867 students from 186 countries were enrolled in United States colleges and universities (Davis, 200 1). By the academic year 2006/2007, a 3% increase in international students in the United States was reported compared to the previous year, bringing the total number of international students in the U.S. that year to 582,984 (Institute for International Education [HE], 2007). In the previous year's report, the council found that 44.9% of the international students were graduate students, and 22% of them were known to be married (HE, 2006a, 2006b). No citation could be found for the number of spouses and children who accompanied those students.Acculturation and Acculturative StressAdapting to new social and physical environments requires adjustment on the part of those international students and their families. Although any students may have stress as they begin work in a new institution and adapt to a new educational environment, moving to a new country at that time is even more stressful. " Acculturation" is the process of adapting to a new social and cultural setting (Lieber, Chin, Nihira, & Mink, 2001). As outlined by Kagitcibasi (2007), acculturative stress includes both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The psychological aspect is the most common focus of research and deals with a person's sense of well-being and self-satisfaction, while sociocultural adaptation is related to levels of success in becoming integrated in the dominant society. Both levels seem applicable to the situation of international student families.Researchers have found that the acculturation experiences of international students include difficulties and challenges that vary among families and individuals (e.g., Hayes & Lin, 1994; Mori, 2000; Nwadiora & McAdoo, 1996; Sandhu & Asrabadi, 1994). Church(1982) reported that international students experienced "language difficulties, financial problems, adjusting to a new educational system, homesickness, adjusting to social customs and norms, and for some students, racial discrimination" (p. 544). Findings from recent studies have also supported these conclusions (Cadieux & Wehrly, 1986; Lee, Koeske, & Sales, 2004; Lin & Yi, 1997; Mori, 2000; Swagler & Ellis, 2003 ; Yang & Cium, 1994). On top of (or perhaps as a result of) the above-mentioned issues that international students experience in their daily lives, mental health challenges and psychological problems such as psychosomatic complaints, depression, anxiety and paranoid reactions have also been reported by some authors (Jou & Fukada, 1997; Sam & Eide, 1991; Ying & Liese, 1991). These problems were found to be related to acculturative Stressors such as difficult financial status and loss of social support. Much of this research has been conducted with unmarried undergraduate students only. …