Abstract
This study explores how advice from friends predicts Chinese international students’ college adjustment. First-year international Chinese (N = 95) undergraduates reported on their English language ability (ELA), advice seeking and evaluation with domestic and international friends, and psychosocial adjustment. Chinese students with lower self-reported ELA sought advice from their closest domestic friend less often, perceived advice from that friend as lower in quality, and were less psychosocially adjusted. Advice processes partially mediated the association between ELA and psychosocial adjustment.
Keywords
Over one million international students currently study in the United States, including more from China than any other country (Institute of International Education, 2018). International students experience acculturative stress that can undermine their psychosocial adjustment (see Brunsting, Zachry, & Takeuchi, 2018; Zhang & Goodson, 2011). Two findings are well established in this literature. First, international students who report higher English language ability (ELA) experience less acculturative stress and better psychosocial adjustment (e.g., Hirai, Frazier, & Syed, 2015; K. T. Wang, Wei, & Chen, 2015). Second, international students who perceive higher levels of social support are better adjusted (e.g., K. T. Wang et al., 2015; Ye, 2006).
Advice as a form of support can assist both instrumentally (i.e., offering insights that help with stressors) and emotionally (i.e., signaling caring; Goldsmith, 2004). Although studied extensively in educational contexts (Waring & Song, 2018), advice has not been explored in relation to international student adjustment. There are reasons to suspect that international students with lower ELA will seek advice from domestic friends less often and perceive advice they receive as less helpful. We explore whether advice processes mediate the association between first-year Chinese international students’ ELA and adjustment.
English Language Ability and Psychosocial Adjustment
ELA refers to non-Native students’ proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and comprehending English along with the extent to which students speak English with a non-Native accent (Li, Sepanski, & Zhao, 2006). Psychosocial adjustment includes students’ psychological well-being (e.g., low depressive symptoms and loneliness) and sociocultural adjustment (e.g., feelings of belonging to the campus community; Zhang & Goodson, 2011).
Although Chinese international students in general may face cultural intolerance and discrimination (Lee & Rice, 2007), students with lower ELA are especially likely to experience college adjustment problems (Brunsting et al., 2018). Lower ELA makes it difficult to ask questions and perform well on exams (Chen, 1999). ELA also is associated with acculturative strategies; international students with higher ELA are more likely to engage in integration (participating in U.S. culture while maintaining alliance to their home culture) rather than separation (avoiding interaction with U.S. culture while valuing their home culture; C. C. Wang & Mallinckrodt, 2006).
U.S. students also respond differently to international students with varying ELA. When a Chinese student read a news story in a heavy as opposed to a mild Mandarin accent, U.S. undergraduates had greater difficulty processing and felt angrier; they also perceived the Chinese student with a heavy accent as a more typical outgroup member (Dragojevic, Giles, Beck, & Tatum, 2017). International students with lower ELA also may experience stereotype threat, where awareness of language stigma creates anxiety that undermines their communicative performance (Birney, Rabinovich, Morton, Heath, & Ashcroft, 2020). For these reasons, international students with lower ELA have greater difficulty forming close relationships with domestic students (Hirai et al., 2015). Growing evidence suggests that international students who form friendships with domestic students, as opposed to only with other international students, experience greater psychosocial adjustment; however, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood (Brunsting et al., 2018).
Advice and Psychosocial Adjustment
When individuals disclose challenges, listeners may respond with advice (i.e., suggestions about how to think, feel, or act in response to the problem; MacGeorge, Feng, Butler, & Budarz, 2004). Advice about issues such as disappointing grades or roommate conflict may facilitate international student adjustment. For domestic students, the positive association between college stress and depression is weaker when they report receiving helpful advice from friends and family (MacGeorge, Samter, & Gillihan, 2006). Yet advice does not always result in positive outcomes; advice can imply incompetency or be seen as “butting in” (Chentsova-Dutton, 2012; Wilson, Aleman, & Leatham, 1998). Thus, how international students perceive the quality of advice regarding college adjustment is important.
Advice response theory (ART) suggests that advice content is the strongest and most proximate predictor of perceived advice quality (Bodie & MacGeorge, 2015). Quality advice content is efficacious, feasible, and low in limitations (MacGeorge et al., 2004). Perceptions of content features predict whether students view advice from friends as appropriate, helpful for coping with stressors, and worth following (MacGeorge, Guntzviller, Hanasono, & Feng, 2016). ART argues that source characteristics (e.g., similarity) influence advice outcomes, in part, by affecting perceptions of advice content and politeness (Bodie & MacGeorge, 2015). Chinese students also pay greater attention to characteristics of the advice giver than do American students (Feng & Feng, 2013).
Chinese first-year undergraduates with higher ELA may seek advice from other international friends who know what it is like to be a “foreigner” in the United States as well as from domestic friends who can speak as “cultural insiders” about the demands of U.S. universities. Chinese undergraduates with lower ELA, however, may be less likely to seek advice from domestic friends and perceive advice they do receive as lower in quality due to the greater likelihood that in-group/out-group distinctions will become salient (Dragojevic et al., 2017). Given the potential helpfulness of quality advice for psychosocial adjustment, we predict the following:
ELA is not expected to predict advice frequency or quality for international friends (e.g., other students from China).
These hypotheses suggest a model in which Chinese undergraduates with higher ELA will seek advice from domestic friends more often, evaluate that advice as higher in quality, and benefit in terms of adjustment (see Figure 1).
Mediational model for Chinese first-year undergraduates’ psychosocial adjustment.
Method
Participants
First-year Chinese international undergraduate students (n = 95) were recruited from a large U.S. Midwestern university. Participants on average were 18.61 years old (SD = 0.94); 44.2% were female and 55.8% were male. Participants were from the Colleges of Engineering (30.5%) and Liberal Arts (21.1%) with remaining students spread across nine other colleges.
Procedures
After receiving IRB approval, Chinese first-year undergraduates from all majors were recruited after fall semester midterm exams through the School of Communication’s online research participation system as well as via recruitment materials sent by the university registrar, the university’s largest Chinese student organization, and instructors of international student English courses. It is impossible to calculate a response rate because it is unknown how many participants saw the recruiting materials; however, 17% of the total fall 2015 first-year Chinese undergraduate population participated in this study.
Data were collected via a 30-minute online survey which participants could take in Chinese or English (68% completed the Chinese version). The survey was translated into Chinese by a graduate student from the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies at a university in China, and then back-translated by a bilingual member of the research team. Participants were compensated with either 1% extra credit or a $10 Amazon gift card.
Measures
English Language Ability
ELA was measured with five items from Li et al. (2006). Participants rated their current ability for listening, reading, writing, and speaking in English on 7-point scales ranging from 1 (very poor) to 7 (native-like), as well as the strength of their foreign accent on a scale ranging from 1 (none) to 7 (extremely strong). After recoding the foreign accent item, the five items were averaged (M = 4.49, SD = 0.94, α = .84).
Advice Frequency
Participants rated how often they asked for academic and social advice from their (a) closest American friend at the university and (b) closest international friend at the university. Academic advice was defined as advice about “school or academic challenges. For example, this might include challenges in terms of understanding difficult course content, getting good grades, studying effectively, and/or feeling overwhelmed with classes.” Social advice referred to advice about “social or relationship challenges. These sorts of challenges might include making new friends, getting along with roommates, feeling homesick, feeling lonely, and/or feeling like you do not belong at [the university].”
For each type of advice, participants rated, “How often do you ask this person for [academic/social] advice?” on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (frequently). Because ratings of seeking academic and social advice from their closest domestic friend, r(93) = .57, p < .001, as well as closest international friend, r(93) = .58, p < .001, were strongly associated, we averaged the two ratings into an overall advice frequency score (M = 2.17, SD = 0.96, for the closest domestic friend; M = 2.60, SD = 0.88, for the closest international friend).
Advice Quality
Three items, adapted from MacGeorge et al. (2004), were rated separately for academic and social advice. 1 For each type of friend, students evaluated the quality of their academic advice with the following items: “How helpful is their advice about school?” “After receiving advice from this person, how often do you feel more confident about your ability to resolve your academic problems?” and “How often do you use their academic advice or do what they advise you to do?” Students responded on 4-point Likert-type scales ranging from 1 (e.g., very unhelpful) to 4 (very helpful); scores were averaged to retain the 1 to 4 scale (domestic friend α = .89, international friend α = .87). For social advice, participants rated the same three quality items in the context of social issues—for example, “After receiving advice from this person, how often do you feel more confident about your ability to resolve your social problems?” (α = .90 and .81, for the domestic and international friend).
Participants also had the option of answering “not applicable” if they never received academic or social advice from a domestic or international friend; these students were removed from analyses involving advice quality. Because ratings of the quality of academic and social advice received from the closest domestic friend, r(78) = .66, p < .001, as well as closest international friend, r(87) = .76, p < .001, were strongly associated we averaged scores for the two types of advice into an overall advice quality rating (M = 2.54, SD = 0.83, for the closest domestic friend, M = 2.66, SD = 0.78, for the closest international friend).
Psychosocial Adjustment to College
Psychosocial adjustment was operationalized as the degree to which students felt a sense of belonging and scored low in depression and loneliness.
Belonging was measured using a nine-item scale. Six items came from Glass, Buus, and Braskamp’s (2013) Sense of Community scale. Examples included “I have a sense of affiliation with my university” and “My university honors diversity and internationalism.” Three were from Hurtado and Carter’s (1997) Sense of Belonging to Campus scale; for example, “I see myself as part of the campus community.” All items were measured on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree); scores were averaged to obtain an overall 1 to 5 score (M = 3.60, SD = 0.71, α = .93).
Depressive symptoms were assessed with Zigmond and Snaith’s (1983) seven-item measure. Participants indicated how much they agreed with each item on a 4-point scale. Examples included as follows: “Since coming to [university], I still enjoy the things I used to enjoy” (0 = definitely as much to 3 = hardly at all) and “Since coming to [university], I feel as if I am slowed down” (0 = nearly all the time to 3 = not at all; reverse scored). Scores were summed; total scores could range from 0 to 21 with higher scores indicating greater depressive symptoms (M = 6.12, SD = 3.45, α = .70).
Loneliness was assessed with four items (e.g., “No one really knows me well”) from Russell, Peplau, and Cutrona (1980). Participants indicated how often they felt this way on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (all of the time). Scores on the four items were averaged (M = 2.81, SD = 0.71, α = .72).
Because scores on the three indicators were strongly associated, |r|(90) ranging from .46 to .50, all ps < .001, we combined them into an overall index of psychosocial adjustment. Scores on each indicator were standardized, and then z scores for depression and loneliness measures were multiplied by −1 so that larger scores indicated better adjustment. The three z scores were summed such that higher psychosocial adjustment meant increased belonging and decreased depression and loneliness (M = −0.21, SD = 0.78).
Results
Correlations between study variables appear in Table 1. All study variables were approximately normally distributed (skewness and kurtosis within −1 to +1). Consistent with Hypothesis 1, first-year Chinese undergraduate students’ reports of ELA shared a significant, moderate relationship with their psychosocial adjustment to college (r2 = .12). As ELA increased, participants were marginally more likely to seek advice from their closest domestic friend (r2 = .04; Hypothesis 2a) and significantly more likely to rate advice received from that friend as higher in quality (r2 = .08; Hypothesis 2b). As expected, ELA did not predict advice frequency or quality for participants’ closest international friend. Quality of advice received from the closest domestic friend (r2 = .21, Hypothesis 3a) and international friend (r2 = .22; Hypothesis 3b) both shared a strong, significant association with participants’ psychosocial adjustment.
Descriptive Statistics and Correlations for Study Measures.
Note. Ns range from 84 to 95.
^p = .061. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Hayes’s (2018) PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to assess the mediation model in Figure 1. ELA was the independent variable (X), advice frequency (M1) and quality (M2) were serial mediators, and psychosocial adjustment was the dependent variable (Y). Consistent with Hypothesis 4, ELA was positively associated with frequency of seeking advice from the closest domestic friend, which predicted the perceived quality of advice from that friend, which was positively associated with psychosocial adjustment. Bootstrapping analysis with 5,000 resamples revealed that this X → M1 → M2 → Y indirect effect was statistically significant, b = .105, SE = .048, LLCI95 = .029, ULCI95 = .215. 2 Neither the X → M1 → Y nor X → M2 → Y indirect effects were significant. The direct effect of ELA on psychosocial adjustment also was significant, indicating that advice frequency and quality for the closest domestic friend partially mediated the association between ELA and adjustment.
Discussion
Our findings suggest that students with lower ELA have greater difficulty not only navigating the college classroom but also forming relationships with domestic students within which they feel comfortable seeking and receiving quality advice. Because quality advice is an important form of social support (Goldsmith, 2004), advice processes appear to partially account for the association between ELA and psychosocial adjustment.
These findings have implications for international student adjustment and ART. Although Brunsting et al. (2018) concluded that “successful intercultural interpersonal interaction . . . may represent a critical mechanism and context for international student . . . psychosocial and academic outcomes” (p. 30), they argue that key questions remain unanswered about (a) the source of support (e.g., faculty, staff, domestic students), (b) the importance of number versus strength of ties, and (c) how support networks change over time. Each of these questions could be explored with a focus on the frequency and perceived quality of advice. ART assumes that message content and politeness are proximal predictors of perceived advice quality (Bodie & MacGeorge, 2015). This study suggests that another language feature—degree of non-Native accent—also is associated with perceived advice quality. Future research might employ experimental designs to manipulate accent strength while holding advice content and politeness constant (Dragojevic et al., 2017). Our findings highlight the importance of testing ART in intergroup contexts, since cross-cultural comparisons to date (e.g., Feng & Feng, 2013) have focused on friends from the same country where nationality is unlikely to become salient.
The university where data were collected for this study offered classes to help first-year international students with lower ELA enhance their second-language skills and cross-cultural competence; our findings reinforce the importance of those efforts. Because exposure to a foreign accent can improve later processing of that accent (Dragojevic et al., 2017), creating opportunities for domestic and international students to interact informally may help alleviate intergroup perceptions and negative affect, thereby enhancing conditions for forming intercultural friendships where quality advice can be exchanged (Davies, Tropp, Aron, Pettigrew, & Wright, 2011).
Limitations include that findings are based on a small sample from a single university as well as a cross-sectional design which prevents causal claims. Although we recruited nearly one fifth of the first-year Chinese undergraduates at the university to participate, findings may not generalize to all Chinese international students. Future research should recruit a larger sample and assess ELA, advice processes, and psychosocial adjustment over time. Conversational analytic or microethnographic scholars could shed light on how Chinese international undergraduates with varying ELA solicit and how domestic students offer advice (Waring & Song, 2018). Despite these limits, our findings offer initial evidence that advice functions as an important type of support for international students, clarifies mechanisms by which ELA enhances student adjustment, and highlights directions for future research.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the editor for his helpful advice in terms of adapting the article for Journal of Language and Social Psychology readers.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by funding from the Purdue University’s Office of the President and College of Liberal Arts.
