A Study of Cross-Cultural Adjustment of International Students at the Naval Postgraduate School.

摘要

International officers at the Naval Postgraduate School stay with their families for a longer period than is the case in other education centers in the United States. They and their families are faced with making the transition to living in a new and perhaps strange environment. This study of cross-cultural adjustment of international students describes the development of a social distance scale which is designed to measure the willingness to engage in social contact with host country nationals through a 72 item questionnaire concerning personal interaction by internationals with host-country nationals. The distribution of judgments resulting from this procedure served as the basis for establishing a social distance scale through use of the Thurstonain method of successive intervals. A 25 item social distance scale is then developed and from scores on the scale, the extent of adjustment to living in the United STates is inferred. It also provides data for both internationals and American students with their respective families, the sponsors and international committe, the faculty of the school and the community of Monterey, to understand each other better, therefore improving cross-cultural relations. It also supplies information to support and orientation process which is provided to the students in their home country prior to entry into the Naval Postgraduate School. (Author)