ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AMONG INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN

UNIVERSITAS AIRLANGGA INDONESIA

Shahzad Ali1 Universitas Airlangga, email: shahzad.ali-2018@psikologi.unair.ac.id

Nur Ainy Fardana Nawangsari2 Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.

Duta Nurdibyanandaru3 Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia.

Corresponding Author email*; shahzad.ali-2018@psikologi.unair.ac.id

Abstract:
Globalization and the modern education system make foreign students more important in
Indonesian higher education. International students, supervisors, and institutions are trying to
identify possible ways that can help foreign students adjust to the Indonesian environment,
which has its own uniqueness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of
acculturative stress experienced by international students of Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR).
This study focuses on international students who are studying in UNAIR in Master Program
who were selected based on of the purposive sampling technique for data collection. The study
finds significant positive acculturative stress among international students (mean=3.00) on
homesickness.

Keywords: Acculturative Stress, International Students of Universitas Airlangga

Introduction
Adapting to new living conditions for university students is often nail-biting for foreign students,
this stress is even amplified (Nilsson, J.E. Butler et al. 2008). The cause of acculturative stress
occurs due to sudden change of environment (Berry, J. W., & Annis, R. C., 1974).
Acculturational stress appears when a person finds two or more cultural differences because of
psycho-culture stress and cultural fluctuations. A number of problems related to culture have
been detected, which arise due to psychological and physiological issues. Such physical and
psychological changes are marked by diet, climate, housing, interactive design, rules and values
for cultural substitution.

Acculturative stress is an experience when people adapt a culture that is new to them (Berry, J.
W., Kim, U. et al, 1989). Studies depict that acculturative stress resulted as decline among the
physical, social and psychological, stability of people or groups. The difference in stress is largely
caused by similarities or discrepancies between home and host country cultures of newcomers.
This includes personality traits, amount of disclosure, educational and skill capabilities, gender,
age, ethnic, race, colour and creed, language, religious psychological and strength, as well as
social, political boldness for host culture, especially to newcomers. The extra radical and totally
dissimilar host culture, unlike the newcomer's native cultures, will be supplemented with
additional cultural stress (Cox, D. 1987).

Literature Review
(Sandhu, D.S. & Asrabadi, B.R., 1994), stated that, Relocating to a new environment from their
homeland can result in inner stress. Remembering of friends, family and loneliness are mutual
indicators spoken by overseas students. Staying far from parents and siblings, means they need
to live not having the supportive environment that they had in their homeland, which could cause
give rise to possible pressure of stress. They would face new practice in the concerns of family
high expectations and sponsors of host education system for performance to achieve the high
educational outcomes.
Although, new students need time to familiarize and settle in new environments, success for
these beginners of new education system is based on the way that institution will improve to
tackle the stress psychologically. Hence, while relocating to the new culture and environment
of the host country, the purpose of the students is to learn about the people and get acquainted
with the social and cultural life of host nation. There is number of investigations related to
adjusting in multiple domains with health and organization. For example, a study by (MacKay
and Pakenham K. I. A., 2012), focused on the psychology of patients with psychological
disorders because of extra stress levels connected with patient care. The study shows that the
helpful strategy to overcome stress is to provide support on the basis of social along with
optimum, stress adjustment and having good relationships with patients on behalf of the
caregivers. Foreign students belong to different cultural countries, and come with their unique
personality traits that they adopt from their home country culture. (Charles and Steward, 1991)
stated that, the most important factor or element in foreign students is cultural sensitivity. They
could be confused according to the cultural variations among their homeland culture and the
culture of hosting country that may affect the objectives, motivation and feelings.
(Tseng, W. C., & Newton, F. B. 2002), investigating similar emotions note that it would be
essential for foreign students to adopt host culture and environment immediately to overcome
probable cultural issues of hosting country. For them, students should know how to interact with
intercultural relations, food and social living style differences. The fact is that foreign students
who attend Indonesian universities are required to learn Indonesian language and native culture
simultaneously. Although the fundamental principle is to truly provide them cultural diversit y
of host countries, it can subsidize the current pressure as adjusting the environment that is new
for them, can be tough and miserable which can result in acculturative stress. International
students also face the challenges of acceptance and values. They should adopt the new ways of
thinking and acting being adjustable personalities in host country culture and environment.
Because of sudden cultural changes like academic system that will be totally different as
compared to their homeland education system, communication problems and limitations, not
having friends and peer group of their home ,they will be exposed to stress (Cross S. E., 1995).

Foreign students also have limited resources being a student while coming to the host country.
As a result of this stress they will receive surely more difficulties in acculturating and
establishing the cultural groups (Berry, J. W., Kim, U., 1988)7 & Hayes, R.L. & Lin. H. (1994).
This is largely because of tackling the issues related to host culture, which they have to face
during academic stress without resources as compare to domestic (Sandhu, D.S. & Asrabadi,
B.R, 1998). The mutual effects of these stresses and availability of resources to relocate makes
students highly sensitive to the hurtful effects of acculturative stress. Furthermore, international
students face larger phase of stress related to mental illness because they could not get
appropriate psychological guidance to tackle the fear of failure (Ebbin, A.J. & Blankenship E.S.,
1988).
Various variables are interlinked with the acculturation procedure, one of the most obviously
spoken in the literature is the issue of social support. Social assistance or social support is the
main element that is faced by the foreign students (Hayes, R.L. & Lin. H., 1994)1& (Pedersen
P.B., 1991). To go to other countries, it suddenly withdraws the pre-established supportive
system (Pedersen P.B. 1991) and becomes the cause of confusion, anxiety and lack of
confidence (Hayes, R.L. & Lin. H. 1994).
Academic Experiences
When international students start studying in the first year classes, they face various concerns
related to participation in the classroom, instructions about classroom, discussions in the
classroom, facing the expectations or hopes from the lecturers. They also face the stress about
academic achievements in order to be graduates. To encourage students to achieve goals and to
make sure the interaction between teachers and students (i.e., after class student can approach
or meet with teacher) is recommended (Anaya, G. & Cole, D. 2001). In the first month of the
student life abroad orientation program can also be helpful in finding ways to cope with such
concerns. Additionally, helping foreign students increase their language proficiency can lead to
greater level of self-efficacy in academics (Poyrazli,S., Arbona,C. et al., 2002).

Societal Experiences
International students can show multiple reactions about the culture of hosting country, some
people participate in the social events that is new for them in the hosting country, while others
feel distant. As a variable that influences this attitude, it is a positive approach to combine culture
of the home and host, perceived discrimination, backwardness, great communication skills and
relationships with other students (Ying, Y.W., 2002). Often foreign students belong to more
traditional cultural countries e.g., Asian. This can experience the distance in culture of America
and face some adjustment problems (Poyrazli, S.,Kavanaugh et al., 2004). Additionally, as
perceived bias increases, international students will also be identified with other international
students (Schmitt M.T., Spears,R., & Branscombe, N.R, 2003). However, as the students start
to get engage with the society, they experience the social support from Americans and become
positive sign.

Psychological Experiences
In the first phase of transition international students can feel confusion, lack of confidence, loss
of self, being isolated and helpless. Though, dissimilar to other students, foreign students
commonly does not have the resources like domestic students to overcome stress (Sandhu, D.S.
& Asrabadi, B.R, 1998). The absence of resources as well as psychological experiences can lead
to severe anxiety or depression. There are more or less evidence that international students’
culture depict the number of type of psychological problems they reacted. The international
students in America who belongs to Asia, Central Africa, and South America, face more
acculturative stress rather students belongs to Europe (Poyrazli, S.,Kavanaugh et al., 2004) &
(Arora, A. K., Inose, M., Yeh, C. J.. et al. 2003).

Being an international students in any country could be the cause of some extra adjustment
issues (Ishiyama, F. I. 1989) & (Pedersen P.B. 1991). As stated by (Schram and Lauver, 1988),
foreign students mostly face (a) estrangement (failure feelings to accomplish the desired results),
(b) meaninglessness (sometimes unable to understand what is happening with them), and (c)
social estrangement (being alone feelings).

The aim of this study is investigate International students from different countries who are
experiencing acculturative stress on different level among students of different gender and age
groups.

Hypothesis
1) Acculturative stress is a cause of home sickness in international students

Methodology
For the purpose of this study the “Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS)”
developed by “(Sandhu, D.S. & Asrabadi, B.R, 1994)” used to determine the acculturative stress
in International Students of Universitas Airlangga. It was descriptive research.
The scale consists of 36-items and adapted to 5-point Likert scale (originally 7-point scale
1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly agree). ASSIS consists of 7 subscales; Perceived
discrimination (eight items), Homesickness (four items), Perceived hate (five items), Fear (four
items), Stress due to change/culture shock (three items), Guilt (two items), and Miscellaneous
(10 items). A reliability test was conducted on ASSIS and the Cronbach alpha is as under:

S Item C Alpha
1 Perceived Discrimination Items 0.792
2 Homesickness Items 0.697
3 Perceived Hate Items 0.830
4 Fear Items -0.265
5 Stress Due to Change/Culture Shock Items 0.711
6 Guilt 0.977
7 Miscellaneous 0.734
Findings
Table I shows the total number of respondents based on the three levels (minimum and,
maximum) score.
Table1
Descriptive Statistics

N Minimum Maximum Sum Mean Std. Deviation

SA 80 28.00 94.00 253.00 63.2500 23.87333
Valid N 80
(listwise)

In the test the participants has lowest score is 28.00 and the highest score is 94.00, the mean
score is 63.25 and the standard deviation is 27.87333.
Table 2
Subscale Mean
Perceived Discrimination 1.75
Home Sickness 3.00
Perceived Hate 1.6
Fear Items 1.56
Stress Dues To Change Culture/Shock 1.91
Guilt Item 2.125
Miscellaneous 1.32
Overall 1.88

The table two shows the highest sub scale of ASSIS in the study is home sickness that have
3.00. And guilt feelings on the second with having2.125men.Thelowestoneisperceivedhate sub
scale with 1.6mean.
Table 3
ITEMS SUM OF
SCORE
21) I miss the country and people of my national origin. 13.00
35) I feel sad leaving my relatives behind. 13.00
8) I feel intimidated to participate in social activities. 6.00
12) I feel angry that my people are considered inferior here. 6.00
13) I feel overwhelmed that multiple pressures are placed upon me after my 6.00
migration to this society.
23) I feel that my people are discriminated against. 6.00
24)People from some other ethnic groups show hatred toward me through their 6.00
actions
19) I have to frequently relocate for fear of others. 1.00
36) I worry about my future for not being able to decide whether to stay here or 1.00
to go back.

Item numbers 21 and 35 has the highest score from the correspondents who participate in this
research. Item numbers 8,12,13,23,24 are the items that has median score and the item numbers
19 and 36 are the lowest ones item with sum of score.

Discussion and Recommendation

The results indicate that the students from Universitas Airlangga are experiencing acculturative
stress (m=1.88, Table 2). The results evidently show culture shock and changing environment
are the causes of stress. This can also be seen by perceived hate and homesickness (refer to Table
2) as the acculturative stress factors with the highest mean as reported by international students
in Universitas Airlangga. The results emphasize that international students in Universitas
Airlangga are adjusting in new community that is somewhat conventional and traditional in
nature, which can be hard for them to settled or understand. The study proves that host society
which is multi-cultural with various ethnic groups is difficult to adjust for international students
as in UNAIR. This might be international students fail to manage to make themselves fully opt
in Indonesian because of less time.

A majority of Indonesian community is unable to communicate in English language. It is also a

challenge for international students to learn Indonesian or local language to survive in the
community. As per the results of Table 3 indicating students are facing homesickness with sum
of score item numbers of 21 (13.00, Table 3) and 35 (13.00. Table 3). According to (Pederson,
1995), cultural shock arises when someone cannot live social lifestyle like in past he/she had
and forced to opt the new social lifestyle. As per the findings of this research, home sickness is
on the highest with mean (m=3.00). According to (Pederson, 1995), when someone is going to
adapt new culture, that individual will face psychological problems i.e. loneliness, anxiety,
depression, distress or the feeling of failure to adapt the cultural changes comparing with
homeland and hosting country, confusion in terms of functions in a society which is new, can
result into hate and anger towards the culture, this is called “cultural shock”. Furthermore, as
per the results of this study “fear items” is not a factor of acculturative stress for international
students in Universitas Airlangga.
As per the findings of (Berry, J. W., Kim, U., et al. 1987), being a foreign student should make
new social groups for socialization that will support in social adaptation which will be also
helpful to overcome stress. By doing this, they will be able to trust themselves and will know
how to control the stress at their own. Hence, international students in Universitas Airlangga
must try to overcome stress, academically settle, and trust themselves in order to be successful
in academic achievement. To overcome the stress of cultural shock because of sudden changing,
international students should act motivated and present themselves as strong personality to
tackle the stress and challenging problems. This is because they have distance from their family
and living without support. The findings also suggest that when students live far away from their
homes homesickness rises, because they used to live in an environment where friends and family
are always there to support (Bontekoe E.H.M.E, A. J. J. M. Vingerhoets, & T. Fontijn, 1994).
This can also be a reason of homesickness for individuals who want to go back to known culture
and environment. International students who live far away from their families face such stress
because of feelings of loneliness, missing food, culture and lifestyle. Such type of situation can
make them even worst because they are not willing to open-up and share their feelings and
emotions. Another reason to be isolated from society and feeling homesickness is differences in
culture and language barriers.
Results of this study are closely related with Hayes, R.L. & Lin. H. (1994), who found foreign
students very shy and self-controlled to disclose their feelings, emotions, and societal concerns
among peer group. This is because they make their relationship with only classmates when they
are in the class. Language is the main platform of communication for social networking where
an individual is living. But some studies investigate that the barrier of language is also the
indicator of homesickness with the second highest mean (m=3.00, Table 2). International
students also experience hate when they face uncomfortable environment. It denotes that the
international students perceive negative attitude of people around them. In acculturative stress
context, these are the feelings of hate which are the individuals’ negative feelings for the culture
surrounding them (Poyrazli, R. Thukral, and E. Duru, 2010).
The findings of current study support the understandings of (Cemalcilar, Z., & Falbo, T., 2008),
stated that it is very difficult to join new culture that is challenging also that can result in
adjusting process for international students. Usually, adequate results in the context of perceived
hate, cultural shock, language barrier and homesickness, present stressful behaviour in
international students; i.e. misunderstanding, unhappiness, unease, confusion, loneliness
feelings and probable problem of distinctiveness affecting acculturative stress (Berry, J. W.,
Kim, U., et al., 1987). The findings of this study resemble with the study done by (Zhai, L.
2002), where he found perceived hate in educational institutions also a cause of increased stress
and adjusting in the society for international students. (Ward, C., & Rana-Deuba, A., 1999),
stated that acculturative stress also plays negative role in cultural adaptation procedure of
persons.
The current investigations propose that Universitas Airlangga should make a mechanism for
international students that can be fruitful for them and they can feel themselves as part of new
society. By adopting this international students will face less stress and can achieve academic
goals smoothly. At the beginning, international office of UNAIR should facilitate students with
friendly environment, because all international students face problems like accommodation,
cultural barrier, language barrier and home sickness. Universitas Airlangga should highlight
how international students are important for their campus. Every faculty in the university with
international students should arrange some events that can play facilitative role to reduce the
acculturative stress and perceived hate in international students. This can be productive to
improve their academic performance and success as well.
The current findings also suggest that administration of Universitas Airlangga should organize
a system of counseling in such a way that it helps in overcoming the acculturative stress and
other psychological problems. Such type of steps and activities would help lessen the stress,
adjustment problems, environmental factors, and also can reduce homesickness and cultural
shock that might become the reason of bad performance in academics and in the society as well.
Universitas Airlangga also has a responsibility to arrange some activities and different cultural
events for international students that can help to overcome the gap among society and
international students. It will help them to learn culture and language. The recommendations
from this study can help university administration, services of counseling and relationship
between academic and non-academic staff of university.
(Bartram B. 2007) and (Ramsay, S., Jones, E., et al., 2007), stated that, the supporting behavior
of academics can be helpful in the adjustment process for foreign students. For this purpose
UNAIR should also arrange counseling sessions from the professional psychologist. Getting
enrolled is a lead to adaptation in the culture as well but it takes time for international students.
The other thing that UNAIR also need to do is to care take of the financial issues of students
who are on scholarships in UNAIR. (Bektas, Y. 2004), also suggested that, for foreign students
the international office in the universities are the option to know the information about anything
either regarding culture and academics. So, the current study emphasize that the working body
of international office at UNAIR should take care of international students in terms of assisting
them, asking from them about their stay and facilities in dormitories.
Conclusion
The investigations of current study shows that international students face adjustment and
adaptation problems i.e. homesickness and cultural shock in hosting country. This study also
suggests that international students in Universitas Airlangga have moderate level of
acculturative stress. The international students should mold themselves towards the adjustment
and adaptation in new environment and culture of host country on immediate basis to face the
least stress and other psychological problems that arise for a strange or new individual. The
study suggests to the authorities, policymakers and decision makers to establish a plan at the
beginning of the academic sessions that should be based on extraordinary support and assistance
and organize special events about intercultural relations which will be helpful to overcome
acculturative stress. If international students easily communicate in the society, they will be able
to adjust and can improve self-esteem (Demakis and McAdams D. P. 1994)14.
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This study focuses on international students who are studying in UNAIR in Master Program
who were selected on the basis of the purposive sampling technique for data collection. The
study finds significant positive acculturative stress among international students (mean=3.00)
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