International Students' Social Support Networks and Intercultural Adaptation: From the Perspectives of Sense of Security and Trust

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K17620
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese language education; Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Ye Shaoyu 筑波大学, 図書館情報メディア系, 准教授 (00762204)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 異文化適応 / 一般的信頼感 / 集団同一視 / ソーシャルサポートネットワーク / メディア使用

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Through this project, it was clarified that international students (IS)'s generalized trust toward Japanese people have significant effects on deceasing their feelings of stress and improvment of sense of acceptance in japan; whereas ther group identification toward same-language speakers increased their feelings of stress and their genernalized trust toward other-language speakers had no effects on their improvment of sense of acceptance. Addiionally, for non-Chinese students, their group identification toward in-group members had no relationship with their social support received from same-language speakers. Furthermore, ISs from mainland China and other ISs had different perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and used different media to collect relevant information and relieved their anxieties, and social support from Japanese people had significant effects on their anxiety-relieving behaviors.

Free Research Field

異文化心理学、メディア心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は留学生の異文化適応において，メディア使用との相乗効果を含め，外集団に対する一般的信頼感の効果は日本人と他国人によって異なることや，内集団に対する集団同一視は中華系・中国本土の留学生とその他の留学生によって，ソーシャルサポートネットワークの形成やストレス感の低減，被受容感の向上に異なる影響を及ぼすことを明らかにした。
これらの成果を踏まえ，今後外集団特に日本人に対する信頼感を高めると共に，集団化しやすい中華系・中国本土の留学生とその他の留学生に対して異なるソーシャルサポートを提供する必要性が示唆された。