Social adjustment and friendship patterns of international students : a study of Norwegian students studying abroad

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of friendships in the social adjustment of international students, in particular to explore the role of preference for co-nationals/co-culturals as opposed to a preference for befriending people belonging to other cultural groups. Information was gathered by a psychometric, self-report survey questionnaire. A modified version of the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (Ward & Kennedy, 1999) was used. For the purpose of this study, a Success Scale, a Co-national Scale and an Openness Scale were created. The sample consisted of 265 students studying abroad. The most important results showed that a preference for co-nationals was related to a higher amount of experienced difficulties and a lower level of success.

Keywords: exchange students, foreign students, friendship patterns, international students, Sociocultural Adaptation Scale, social adjustment, sojourn.