A Social Cognitive Approach to Coping with Acculturative Stress in International Students

The present study employed a cross-sectional design to test a model of coping with acculturative stress in an international student sample. Drawing from Lent’s (2004) social cognitive model of restorative well-being, several direct and mediated paths were hypothesized to predict (negatively) acculturative stress and (positively) life satisfaction. Behavioral acculturation and behavioral enculturation (Kim & Omizo, 2006) were also examined as predictors of coping with acculturative stress among international students. Using a self-report survey, participants’ ratings of acculturative stress, life satisfaction, social support, behavioral acculturation, behavioral enculturation, and coping self-efficacy were assessed. The results revealed that the variables of the model explained 16% of the variance in acculturative stress and 27% of the variance in life satisfaction. A final model, including the use of modification indices, provided good fit to the data. Findings also suggested that coping self-efficacy was a direct predictor of acculturative stress, and that behavioral acculturation and coping self-efficacy were direct predictors of students’ life satisfaction. Limitations, future research, and practical implications are discussed.

The Role of Attachment in a Social Cognitive Model of Social Domain Satisfaction in College Students

The study examined a modified social cognitive model of domain satisfaction (Lent, 2004). In addition to social cognitive variables and trait positive affect, the model included two aspects of adult attachment, attachment anxiety and avoidance. The study extended recent research on well-being and satisfaction in academic, work, and social domains. The adjusted model was tested in a sample of 454 college students, in order to determine the role of adult attachment variables in explaining social satisfaction, above and beyond the direct and indirect effects of trait positive affect. Confirmatory factor analysis found support for 8 correlated factors in the modified model: social domain satisfaction, positive affect, attachment avoidance, attachment anxiety, social support, social self-efficacy, social outcome expectations, and social goal progress. Three alternative structural models were tested to account for the ways in which attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance might relate to social satisfaction. Results of model testing provided support for a model in which attachment avoidance produced only an indirect path to social satisfaction via self-efficacy and social support. Positive affect, avoidance, social support, social self-efficacy, and goal progress each produced significant direct or indirect paths to social domain satisfaction, though attachment anxiety and social outcome expectations did not contribute to the predictive model. Implications of the findings regarding the modified social cognitive model of social domain satisfaction were discussed.