Choose your (international) contacts wisely: A multilevel analysis on the impact of intergroup contact while living abroad

• The role of social contact in sojourner adjustment and intergroup affect is examined.
• Sojourners were surveyed four times in a two year longitudinal study.
• Both contact quality and source of contact (ingroup vs outgroup) were measured.
• Overall quality of contact was associated with higher adjustment.
• Ingroup contact was associated with outgroup derogation and lower adjustment.

A two year longitudinal study examined the influence of social contact abroad on student sojourners’ cultural adjustment and intergroup affect. Social contact was measured with regard to the three people that sojourners (exchange students) spent most time with. Both the quality of the relationship with each contact and the cultural background (host national, co-national) of each contact were measured, that is contact quality and contact source, respectively. The data were analysed through repeated measures multilevel modelling. Results indicate that good quality contact (independent of source) is associated with higher cultural adjustment in sojourners and lower levels of stress. Contact quality however, was not associated with intergroup affect. Source of contact was found to matter, especially over time. Specifically, in the later stages of the sojourn, having more co-national contacts among ones three most frequent contacts, was associated with higher levels of stress, reduced cultural adjustment and higher secondary outgroup derogation. These findings suggest that who sojourners have contact with, matters for both cultural adjustment and intergroup affect.