An exploratory study of inter-relationships of acculturative stressors among Chinese students from six European union (EU) countries

This study examined the inter-relationships of acculturative stressors experienced by Chinese international students. A sample of 463 Chinese students in six EU countries (UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain and Belgium) responded to a web-based survey. The results showed that Chinese students in France suffered from bigger constraints in linguistic issues and dealing with life tasks than Chinese students in UK. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that language constraints and perceived cultural differences play a key role in influencing other stressors. The findings indicated that language constraints and perceived cultural differences accounted for 62% of the total variance of academic integration difficulty; language constraints accounted for 17% of the variance of problems in dealing with daily tasks; perceived cultural differences accounted for 56% of the variance of social integration difficulty; academic integration and problems in dealing with daily tasks explained 14% of the variance of homesickness.