From Arrival to Adaptation: A Longitudinal Investigation of Cultural Distance, Acculturative and Academic Stress, and Social Support in International Students

The first year for international students is often stressful as they adjust to a new cultural and educational environment. To better understand and address these challenges, this two-wave longitudinal study investigated how cultural distance, stress during cultural adaptation (i.e., acculturative stress), and academic social support may be related to academic stress among students in the Netherlands. The initial assessment (NT1 = 195) revealed that students perceiving greater cultural disparities between their home and the host culture experienced heightened acculturative stress, leading to increased academic stress. In the subsequent assessment (NT2 = 99), we examined changes in acculturative stress over three months and its correlation with changes in academic stress. Our results revealed that a reduction in acculturative stress from T1 to T2 corresponded with a decrease in academic stress only among individuals with strong academic social support. This suggests the importance of employing domain-specific coping mechanisms for managing stress and emphasizes the need for establishing social support systems within academic institutions. These systems can aid students in navigating academic challenges and fostering connections within educational environments.