Peace-building with the hawks: attitude change of Jewish-Israeli hawks and doves following dialogue encounters with Palestinians

This research examines the effect of initial political affiliation (hawks or doves) of Jewish-Israeli youth on attitudes toward planned contact with Palestinians and examines the extent of change in attitudes of these youth toward Palestinians following the intergroup contact. It was hypothesized that Jewish-Israeli hawks will show less favorable attitudes towards these encounters, indicating less motivation to participate in them and lower satisfaction with these encounters. It was also hypothesized that attitude change following the encounter with Palestinians will be smaller for hawks than for doves. These hypotheses were examined by attitude questionnaires completed by Jewish-Israeli hawks and doves both before and after participation in the encounter. In line with the first hypothesis, hawks expressed less favorable attitudes toward the encounter than doves. However, in contrast to the predictions of the second hypothesis, the findings of this study indicated that while doves showed no attitude change following the encounter, hawks’ attitudes toward Palestinians became significantly more favorable after participating in the intergroup dialogue.     

The impact of emotional intelligence on depression among international students studying in China: The mediating effect of acculturative stress

Psychological resources such as emotional intelligence are claimed to act as protective factors against negative psychological adjustment outcomes of acculturative stress and depression for international students in their intercultural transition in the host country despite the dearth of substantial empirical evidence. With this in mind, the study was conducted to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence, acculturative stress and depression. The study recruited international university students (N = 506) who were purposefully drawn from seven Chinese universities located in Wuhan. Participants completed three self-report questionnaires: Emotional Intelligence Scale, Acculturative Stress for International Students scale and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. The result of the study revealed that students with a higher level of acculturative stress were found to have greater depressive symptoms. The study also indicated that emotionally intelligent students were likely to experience a lower level of acculturative stress and fewer depressive symptoms. The finding of the study further suggested that students with a higher level of emotional intelligence were likely to experience a lower level of acculturative stress and consequently appeared less depressed. Findings of the present study may assist university communities to have an insight into the nature of emotional intelligence and its impact on acculturative stress and depression, and then make the best use of this insight to work on facilitating the psychological adaptation of international students in the new environment. Implications, limitations, and future research directions for the study are discussed.     

The importance of weak friendships for international student satisfaction: Empirical evidence from Canada

We examine the effect of the nationality and strength of friendships on self-reported levels of satisfaction among international students attending a mid-sized university in Canada. Satisfaction scales capture a variety of dimensions of the international study experience, including cultural, educational and social aspects. We find evidence that international students with a larger proportion of host-national friends (Canadians) enjoy greater cultural and social satisfaction and surprisingly the vast majority of the positive effect comes from having a greater proportion of host-nationals in the weakest friendships, suggesting the importance of weak ties. Furthermore, international students with a greater proportion of co-national friends (from the same country as the respondent) report lower levels of cultural and social satisfaction and, again, most of the effect comes from the weakest relationships. We do not find evidence of a relationship between friendship patterns and educational satisfaction. This paper advances the growing body of work on the instrumental value of weak ties in social relationships but also their significance in structuring social experiences, particularly satisfaction and wellbeing. We recommend further research to better understand the processes through which newcomers make new friends in new locations, and the consequences of these social networks in the broader integration experience.     

The role of perceived cultural distance,personal growth initiative,language proficiencies,and tridimensional acculturation orientations for psychological adjustment among international students

We investigated the acculturation process of international students (N = 319, 162 female) from 62 countries who were residing in the Netherlands, using the acculturation framework by Arends-Tóth and Van de Vijver (2007). We applied SEM to test the model that acculturation conditions (perceived cultural distance [PCD], personal growth initiative [PGI], proficiency in English and the host language, and length of residence) in conjunction with acculturation orientations as mediators (host, heritage, expatriate) predict psychological adjustment as acculturation outcome (acculturative stress, satisfaction with life, mental health problems). We found direct and indirect effects of acculturation conditions on adjustment; high PGI, high English and Dutch proficiencies, and low PCD were associated with better adjustment. Host orientation (predicted by high PGI, Dutch proficiency, and low PCD) was positively associated with adjustment. Heritage orientation (predicted by low English proficiency) was negatively associated with adjustment. As a novel aspect, we included expatriate orientation - an orientation towards other expatriates in the host community. Expatriate orientation was predicted by low Dutch proficiency and was positively associated with adjustment. We also observed direct links between acculturation conditions and outcomes: positive associations between PCD and acculturative stress and between length of residence and acculturative stress; and negative associations between PGI and mental health problems and between English proficiency and acculturative stress. We provide evidence that including expatriate orientation is relevant among international students: It is stronger than both host and heritage orientations, thereby underlining the importance of studying acculturation in a contextualized way.