Acculturation and coping strategies

Chinese students experiences in an Australian

tertiary education discourse
 The definition of acculturation

 Individuals from a different culture generally

need to act in response to cultural influences
and expectations. In the course of cultural
influences and adaptation, acculturation
therefore occurs.
 Acculturation refers to those processes
whereby the culture of a society is modified as
the result of contact with the culture of one or
more other societies.
 Acculturation in this paper specially refers to
psychological acculturation with a focus on
individuals.
 Acculturation process

 Brown’s acculturation framework of

four-stage theory:
excitement and euphoria, culture shock, culture stress
and full recovery
 Lysgaard’s U Curve Hypothesis
Enjoying adventurous pleasures, encountering difficulty,
suffering from crises and integrating into the new culture
 Ward and Berry’s five-stage theory
Acculturation experience, appraisal of experience,
strategies used, immediate effects and long term
outcomes/adaptation.
 Factors affecting the process of acculturation

 In response to environmental demands, changes

always take place in individuals, which is referred
to adaptation. When a successful adaptation is not
achieved, acculturative stress may take place
 The amount of acculturative stress and subsequent
adaptation outcomes are assumed to be influenced
by a number of factors:
age, socioeconomic status, language proficiency,
personality
social support, peer relations, length of stay,
discrimination
 Strategies towards acculturation
 Individuals usually adapt one of the following
four strategies towards acculturation:
assimilation strategy, integration strategy,
separation strategy, and marginalization
strategy
 Individual’s choice of acculturation strategies
mainly depend on whether individuals prefer
for maintenance of original cultural
identification, or maintenance of relations
with other groups in new culture.
Coping strategies
 During the process of dealing with
acculturation, individuals, besides adapting
different strategies towards acculturation,
would employ strategies and attempt to
cope with the experiences that are treated
as problematic
 Eight different coping strategies were
elaborated by Lazarus ad Folkman (1984):
problem-solving, wishful thinking,
detachment, social support, positive
thinking, self-blame, tension reduction,
and withdrawal.
Acculturation of Chinese students from
Mainland China

 Quite a number of studies about the

acculturation of Chinese people in alien
cultures have been conducted. However,
most of them have focused on Chinese
immigrants, particularly in North America
 Specific research on Chinese students
from mainland China in Australia is even
few and far between
 It is of great significance to examine the
real situation of mainland Chinese
students when they struggle for the
cultural adjustments.
The purpose of the study
 To examine the five stages of
acculturation among mainland Chinese
students, the first three stages in
particular
 To identify how major factors affect the
acculturation process of Chinese students
 To examine what strategies Chinese
students would adapt to deal with
acculturation and cope with their
acculturative stress
Methodology
 Qualitative methodology –
semi-structured interview
 Participants: 10 (5 males and 5 females), 6
undergraduates from 4 faculties, 2
postgraduates and 2 language learners
 Data collection: the interviews were semi-
structured. All the questions were open-
ended and prepared in advance.
 Each interview, lasting from 20 to 40
minutes, was audio taped and transcribed
in English and Chinese accordingly.
 Data analysis
 Data collected from interview were
categorised into three different themes
 The 1st theme contained the data that
answered those questions to examine the
real situation of Chinese students in different
stages of acculturation
 The 2nd theme was to identify how the
process of acculturation of Chinese students
were affected by adapting 5 factors as
predictors
 The 3rd theme reflected strategies towards
acculturation, and coping strategies for
acculturative stresses
Findings and results
 Chinese students engaged in Australian tertiary
education did not experience strong culture shocks
 English language proficiency played a prominent role
in the process of acculturation
 Chinese students did not experience or suffer from
racial/ethnic prejudice and discrimination although
they still had an awareness of them
 Low levels of English proficiency and inadequate
understandings on each others’ cultures are two main
obstacles for Chinese students to overcome before
they achieve a dynamic relationship with local
students
 Chinese students adapted a separation strategy
towards acculturation
 3 coping strategies were identified: problem-solving
strategy, seeking social support, withdrawal strategy
 Limitations and implications
 10 students’  Tertiary services to international
perceptions in one students should aim at
university apparently establishing and strengthening
cannot represent all the their social support networks to
Chinese students from enable them to adapt
mainland China psychologically and academically
studying in Australia in Australian society
 Some participants may  Programs like “peer-pairing” and
not fully confess their “residential program” should be
real problems carried out to facilitate social
interaction and friendship
formation with local and other
international students.
 Develop more academic support
networks for international
students, increase academic staff’s
intercultural awareness and
encourage them to adapt more
strategies to benefit international
students’ studies.
Conclusion
The study provides educators and
administrators in Australian tertiary
education with more concrete information
about Chinese students learning
experiences, their academic and
psychological problems, and in turn helps
Chinese students improve their
understanding of Australian society,
culture and educational systems, which
will all contribute to their academic
success in Australia.