Social networking sites and other media use, acculturation stress, and psychological well-being among East Asian college students in the United States

• This study examined the effects of ethnic SNS and Facebook on acculturative stress.
• Students who used Facebook only showed a lower degree of acculturative stress.
• The use of ethnic SNS was positively associated with acculturative stress.

It is notable that previous studies often looked at either traditional mass media or new technologies in explaining the effects of media on acculturation. We claim that media effects on acculturation should be investigated by simultaneously considering traditional and new media, as today’s media environment is far from being simple. The present study examined the effects of ethnic social networking site (SNS) and Facebook use (i.e., minutes per week), interpersonal and mass media use, and individual differences on Korean and Chinese college students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being in the United States. An online survey was conducted in two large universities that were located in cities that were not main ethnic residential enclaves for Korean and Chinese people. The findings indicated that the students who used Facebook only demonstrate a lower degree of acculturative stress and a higher degree of psychological well-being compared to other groups in the study. In addition, the use of ethnic SNS is positively associated with acculturative stress. Also, individual differences—extraversion, years of stay in the U.S., academic achievement stress, and English competence—showed strong explanatory power to account for the students’ acculturative stress and psychological well-being. Theoretical implications and limitations of the study were discussed.