ROLES OF PERSEVERANCE AND MEANING-FOCUSED COPING IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACCULTURATIVE STRESS AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING FOR EAST ASIAN INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

A growing body of research has indicated the challenges and difficulties international students face including but not limited to language barriers, academic struggles, social isolation, discrimination, and psychological distress. Among international students, East Asian international students represent a large subgroup and report higher acculturative stress and struggles due to their deep and complex cultural and language differences from the U.S. culture, compared to students from other areas. Using Tweed and Conway’s (2006) framework, the current research examined a model to understand the roles of culturally relevant coping strategies (e.g., perseverance, meaning-focused coping) and acculturative stress in explaining well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and peace of mind) among 200 East Asian international students. The results indicated that acculturative stress was a strong predictor of all well-being variables, perseverance was a predictor of well-being except for negative affect, and meaning-focused coping was a predictor of life satisfaction and positive affect. Tests of indirect effects revealed that perseverance partially mediates the relationship between acculturative stress and positive affect and peace of mind. The results also suggested that meaning-focused coping does not mediate the relationships between acculturative stress and well-being variables. The discussion addresses limitations of the study, suggestions for future research, and implications for literature and counseling psychology practice for East Asian international students.