Date of Award

8-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Communication

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Fan Yang

Committee Members

Annis Golden, Masahiro Yamamoto

Keywords

Acculturative Stress, Community-Based Organization, Health Communication, International Student, Mental Health, Social Support

Subject Categories

Communication

Abstract

One of the prominent barriers which hinder international students’ integration into their new communities is acculturative stress. Social support is one of the resources which people can utilize to cope with stress. Community-based organizations (CBOs) can be used as sources of social support for international students who do not have strong social ties near them. In this study, how CBOs can play a role as sources of social support and as a resource to cope with stress among Asian international students was investigated. In addition, media use in receiving social support was explored. The present study used mixed methods with exploratory design which is quantitative method emphasized. The qualitative research, the formative step of the study used individual interviews and the quantitative research utilized a survey. The formative research confirmed that international students experienced a certain amount of stress and depression; and that the CBOs were regarded as important organizations for international students, which provided kinds of social support with them. The results of repeated measures ANOVA tests showed: job/economic status is the highest scored stressor of acculturative stress; international students are satisfied the most with physical support received; and there is a statistically significant difference in frequency between media use receiving all kinds of social support. The result of correlation test showed that social network sites were not very effective in terms of providing all kinds of social support and in-personal communication was the most effective in the aspect of satisfaction of the receiver. The analysis of SEM explained: Asian international students who experience more acculturative stress have more depression; more acculturative stress leads to more involvement in CBOs; more involvement in CBOs leads to more perceived social support; more social support leads to less depressed and more satisfied with life. In addition, a multi-group analysis using Chi-square difference test showed that international students perceive more social support when they are involved in faith-based organizations than when they engage only in general secular CBOs. The results of the study imply that there is a huge role of CBOs as a resource of social support in the mental health or well-being of Asian international students. Social support buffers the negative effect of acculturative stress on depression and life satisfaction. Moreover, appropriate choice of media use and types of CBOs can be considered for the effectiveness of the mechanism. Based on these findings, the present study can suggest that further research on the role of CBOs and FBOs should be done in future research. However, the limitations of the present study should be taken into consideration in future study. Weaknesses of the recruitment of the participants, a limitation of cross-sectional data and weaknesses of measurements were discussed in the section of limitations and future directions. Alternative models can be plausible based on different study designs and stress buffering hypothesis should be examined more for clarifying the mechanism and conflicting results of the previous studies.

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