Abstract
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The present study is an investigation of how personality, gender, age, and race-ethnicity factors are related to the acculturative stress of international students. The participants were 613 international students enrolled in a U.S. University. The students completed the online surveys that included Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students, the Big Five Inventory and a demographic questionnaire. Results showed that only one personality type, neuroticism was significantly correlated with the overall acculturative stress. Neuroticism was also significantly related to perceived discrimination, homesickness, fear, and perceived hate/rejection sub factors of acculturative stress. Openness was positively related with homesickness and negatively related with age. Other results indicated are that compared to the European students, African, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Middle Eastern students reported having significantly higher levels of acculturative stress. The results of this study imply that counseling center personnel need to identify the high risk groups for acculturative stress and provide psychoeducational intervention programs. Further implications are discussed.
Key words: Acculturative stress, race-ethnicity, international students, personality.
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