ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

30 (2006) 471–485
www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel

International students’ acculturation: Effects of

international, conational, and local ties
and need for closure
Emiko S. Kashima, Evelyn Loh
School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic., 3086, Australia

Abstract

Asian international students’ acculturation to Australia was significantly influenced by their

personal ties with other international (non-conational), conational, and local Australian students,
and by the individual difference of need for cognitive closure (NCC). High NCC students tended to
find their sojourn in the foreign country more unsettling and stressful. Nevertheless, having personal
ties with locals alleviated their psychological adjustment. Students with more international ties were
better adjusted in general. The study also suggested that international students’ social identities may
change dynamically during their acculturation. Greater social ties of all three types facilitated
identification with their Australian university. Further, cognitively open and flexible low NCC
students tended to hold stronger identification with their heritage culture if having more international
ties. Further research should replicate these results with potential applied implications for those
concerned with international education. The present results were also compared with the previous
research on international immigrants.
r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Acculturation; International students; Need for cognitive closure; Social network; Social identity

1. Introduction

Immigrants and sojourners in a multicultural society often find themselves in a

multicultural environment involving newcomers from diverse cultures of origin. How the

Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9479 3829; fax: +61 3 9479 1956.
E-mail address: e.kashima@latrobe.edu.au (E.S. Kashima).

0147-1767/$ - see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.12.003
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472 E.S. Kashima, E. Loh / International Journal of Intercultural Relations 30 (2006) 471–485

newcomers’ acculturation to a new society is influenced by ‘‘international’’ social ties they

develop—the links with others from countries other than their own or the host society—
has been a neglected topic in the acculturation literature which tends to focus more on
effects of conational and host cultural contacts (e.g., Berry & Kim, 1988; Ward &
Kennedy, 1993). Nonetheless, potential impacts of international ties on newcomers’
acculturation have been suggested by Bochner and his colleagues who investigated
international students extensively in the 1970s and 1980s (Bochner, McLeod, & Lin, 1977;
Furnham & Alibhai, 1985; for a review see Furnham & Bochner, 1986). Their functional
model of international students’ friendship patterns identified three distinct types of social
ties held by international students: (1) the mono-cultural network comprising of close
friendships with other conationals, which tends to be the international students’ primary
social network; (2) the bicultural network comprised of locals including academics,
students, and advisors, which tends to be their secondary network; and (3) the multicultural
network involving internationals from other countries, which tends to be the third network.
Bochner (1982) surmised that these three types of social tie serve separate functions for
international students. The monocultural network functions mainly to provide a setting for
expressing values and engaging in practices of the culture of origin. The bicultural network
serves instrumental functions, facilitating students to reach their academic and
professional goals. The multicultural network has been said to have a social and
recreational function.
The subsequent acculturation research has not exploited this framework as much as it
could. Although multicultural perspectives on culture and identity have been discussed
much (Hermans & Kempen, 1998; La Fromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993) empirical
investigation as to how multicultural contacts influence acculturation is underdeveloped.
The first aim of the present research was to examine the role of international ties in
international students’ acculturation.
Previous research into immigrants and sojourners has suggested that greater amounts
of social support and stronger social ties with both locals and conationals are
generally incremental to the newcomers’ psychological adjustment, or emotional
wellbeing and satisfaction during cultural transition (for review see Ward, 2001;
Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). In contrast, for sociocultural adjustment,
or the ability to ‘‘fit in’’ and navigate successfully in the new cultural environment,
the benefit of social ties with locals seems greater than those with conational ties
(Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1991, 1993; Ward & Rana-Deuba, 1999). The
pattern of accumulated data thus suggests that psychological adjustment depends more on
the amount of stressors and coping resources whereas sociocultural adjustment relates
more to social learning that is enhanced through contacts with members of the host
country (Bochner, 1986). From the perspective to see social ties to be the medium of
psychological adjustment and culture learning, it seems plausible that newcomers of
different cultural backgrounds also help facilitate each others’ psychological adjustment
in multicultural environment. Further, culture learning may also be facilitated by
internationals who are long-term residents of the community, although the native
members of the host society may play this role more effectively. Hence, we predicted
psychological adjustment to be better among international students with more
local, conational, and international ties, and sociocultural adjustment and acquisition
of local cultural knowledge to be better among those with international ties as well as
local ties.
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Newcomers also develop some new social identities in the host society. In the present
study we focused on two such social identities. Heritage cultural identity, or identification
with one’s culture of origin, is often assumed to be maintained rather than transformed
dynamically once the newcomer arrives in the host society. However, as Sussman (2002)
pointed out, heritage cultural identity is often not salient while the person resides in his/her
home culture but becomes more salient once in the foreign cultural environment. The
question of how local and conational ties influence the maintenance of heritage cultural
identity has been investigated in a number of studies, which implied in general that greater
conational ties, rather than local ties, foster stronger heritage cultural identity (Searle &
Ward, 1990; Ward & Kennedy, 1992, 1993). This finding is also consistent with the
prediction based on social identity and self-categorization theories (Tajfel & Turner, 1986;
Turner, 1987) such that conational ties provide people with opportunities to recognize
their similarities to their compatriots. Yet, the same theoretical perspective suggests that
local and international ties also should enhance newcomers’ heritage cultural identity by
giving them opportunities to compare their heritage culture with out-groups’ cultures,
leading them to recognize their cultural uniqueness. We therefore expected that not only
the amount of conational ties but also that of local and international ties should correlate
positively with newcomers’ heritage cultural identity.
The other social identity focused in this study was Australian university identity, or the
self-identity as a student of their Australian university. International students who have
greater opportunities to mix with local and other international students are more likely to
develop this identity. Thus we predicted that having more ties with local students and
international students would be associated with stronger Australian university identity.
The present study investigated the relationships between three types of social ties (local,
conational, and international) and five aspects of acculturation: (1) psychological
adjustment, (2) sociocultural adjustment, (3) acquisition of host cultural knowledge,
(4) heritage cultural identity, and (5) Australian university identity.

1.1. Social ties, NCC, and acculturation

Newcomers inevitably find substantial degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity in the new
cultural environment. Yet, some cope with such conditions better than others. According
to Kruglanski and his colleagues (e.g., Kruglanski & Webster, 1996; Webster &
Kruglanski, 1998), an individual difference in need for cognitive closure (abbreviated as
NCC, hereafter) reflects the degrees to which one desires a clear and firm solution over
uncertainty, confusion, and ambiguity. Research by Kosic, Kruglanski, Pierro, and
Mannetti (2004) found European immigrants with higher levels of NCC to show poorer
psychological adjustment. Moreover, the research has suggested that two different types of
reference group encountered by immigrants upon entering the new society, one consists of
locals and the other consists of conationals (coethnics in their terminology), make distinct
predictions about the course of acculturation followed by high NCC immigrants in
particular. Specifically, if immigrants are met with a local reference group with knowledge
of local customs and their unique worldviews, high NCC (vs. low NCC) individuals tend to
seize promptly the local worldviews and assimilate into the host society quickly. In
contrast, if high NCC individuals encounter a conational reference group who shares
heritage worldviews with the newcomers and assists them in maintaining their heritage
customs, they tend to embrace their heritage worldviews and freeze with them, thus
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assimilating less to the host culture. By comparison, low NCC individuals’ course of
acculturation is little influenced by the characteristic of the reference group encountered.
The second aim of the present study was to replicate and extend Kosic et al. (2004)
research with international students.
We predicted, following Kosic et al., a main effect of NCC on international students’
psychological adjustment: the higher the NCC, the poorer the psychological adjustment.
We also considered that high NCC students’ psychological adjustment would be improved
by having greater social ties in their new environment, as unlike immigrants, making
friends is an important part of life among international students. This suggested that social
ties moderate the effects of NCC on psychological adjustment. We further considered that
NCC has an impact on sociocultural adjustment of international students. Although Kosic
et al. (2004) did not find this effect with European immigrants, international students, and
in particular Asian students face a greater task of having to learn new interpersonal norms,
and it seemed likely that NCC has negative impacts on sociocultural adjustment. Finally,
following Kosic et al. we predicted that NCC and social ties interact with each other to
influence sociocultural adjustment: among high NCC students in particular, those with
more local or international ties would indicate better sociocultural adjustment whereas
those with more conational ties would show poorer sociocultural adjustment.
Turning to social identities, we predicted that both heritage cultural identity and
Australian university identity to be stronger among high (vs. low) NCC students, because
previous research by Shah, Kruglanski, and Thompson (1998) found high NCC individuals
(or high NCC situations) to show stronger liking of in-groups relative to low NCC
individuals (or low NCC situations). However, more recent research implied that high NCC
individuals favor in-groups only in conditions where the in-group is homogeneous and
similar to the self, in other words, having an appeal as a ‘‘closure provider’’ (Kruglanski,
Shah, Pierro, & Mannetti, 2002). In conditions where the group is heterogeneous or
dissimilar to the self, low NCC, rather than high NCC, individuals are expected to be more
favourable towards the group. This implies that NCC and social ties may interactively
influence heritage cultural identity and Australian university identity in some complex way.
As a preliminary inquiry into this proposition, we predicted that among students with high
NCC, the greater the conational ties, the stronger the heritage cultural identity but the
weaker the Australian university identity, because compatriots present with a closure that
matches with heritage identity but not with Australian university identity. Further, we
conjectured that among students with low NCC, the greater the international ties, the
stronger will be both the heritage cultural identity and Australian university identity,
because these social ties are diverse and likely to facilitate development of new, flexible
identities among individuals who have high tolerance for uncertainty.

1.2. Summary of predictions

We considered that English-speaking background and the length of residence in

Australia would contribute positively to acculturation. In sum, the following predictions
were made.

(1) Psychological adjustment should reflect the main effects of local, conational, and
international ties, a main effect of NCC, and interaction effects of NCC and social ties,
after controlling for English-speaking background and length of residence.
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(2) Sociocultural adjustment and acquisition of cultural knowledge should reflect the main
effects of local and international ties, a main effect of NCC, and interaction effects of
NCC and social ties, after controlling for English-speaking background and length of
residence.
(3) Heritage cultural identity should reflect the main effects of local, conational and
international ties, a main effect of NCC, and interaction effects of NCC and these
social ties, after controlling for English-speaking background and length of residence.
(4) Australian university identity should reflect the main effects of local and international
ties, a main effect of NCC, and interaction effects of NCC and all three social ties, after
controlling for English-speaking background and length of residence.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Participants were recruited from Asian international students enrolled in universities in

the Melbourne metropolitan area in 2004. Only students on international student visas
were asked to complete a questionnaire. Two hundred copies of the questionnaire were
distributed through universities’ international offices, clubs, and personal contacts. One-
hundred and five questionnaires were returned, five of which were omitted from the sample
due to incomplete information. The final sample included 100 respondents (67 females and
33 males). Respondents’ countries of origin included Singapore (36), Malaysia (25), China
(11), Hong Kong (9), Indonesia (5), Thailand (4), Japan (4), Taiwan (1), Laos (1), Korea
(1), Bangladesh (1), Pakistan (1), and India (1). Thirty-five respondents were native
speakers of English, and the remaining 65 were non-native English speakers. The length of
residence in Australia ranged from 1 month to 7.5 years with the mean of 27.7 months
(SD ¼ 20:7). The age of respondents ranged from 18 to 39, with the mean of 23.5 years
(SD ¼ 3:4).

2.2. Materials

The questionnaire contained several questions regarding respondents’ social ties within
Australia, questions for measuring five acculturation indices and NCC, plus demographic
questions.

2.2.1. Social ties

Respondents selected from a list of three categories (i.e., local Australians, conationals,
and international students from a country other than the respondent’s) the people with
whom they had most contact during their first 3 months in Australia. Multiple selections
were allowed. The same question was repeated for their current friends/acquaintances.
These two questions provided virtually identical responses therefore we will not mention
the first question further. Respondents were then given a blank table, and asked to list up
to 14 friends or acquaintances they had locally. On the first column of the table, the initials
or a nickname of each friend/acquaintance was to be indicated. Then in the second
column, they indicated each person’s country of origin by ticking one of four boxes
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labelled with ‘from Australia’, ‘from my country’, ‘from another country’ and ‘don’t
know’. No one used the ‘don’t know’ option. Subsequently, we counted the number of
targets that belonged to each of the three categories. Respondents generally had more
conational (M ¼ 4:07, SD ¼ 2:85) and international (M ¼ 3:87, SD ¼ 2:85) ties than local
Australians ties (M ¼ 2:37, SD ¼ 2:55), underscoring the importance of international ties
in addition to conational ties in their social networks.1 To check the validity of the social
tie measure based on the list of friends/acquaintances, the numbers of three types of ties
were compared within three sub-groups of participants; those who selected as their sole
primary contacts conationals (n ¼ 25), internationals (n ¼ 57), and Australians (n ¼ 4),
respectively. Supporting the validity of the list measure, the average number of conational
ties was greater (5.12) than international (2.84) and Australian (1.76) ties in the first group,
F ð2; 48Þ ¼ 10:85, po:001; international ties were greater (4.61) than Australian (2.25) and
conational (3.84) ties in the second group, F ð2; 112Þ ¼ 10:05, po:001; and Australian ties
(5.25) exceeded international (2.75) and conational (4.25) ties in the third group,
F ð2; 6Þ ¼ :23, n.s.

2.2.2. Acculturation indices

Five indices of acculturation were measured. Psychological adjustment was measured by
12 items adopted from Crano and Crano’s (1993) Inventory of Student Adjustment. These
items described positive and negative affective states (e.g., ‘I feel lonely’, ‘I feel excited
about new experiences’). Respondents rated each item on a 7-point scale that ranged from
1 ‘it does not describe me/it is not true of me’ to 7 ‘it describes me/it is very true of me’.
Scores for items reflective of negative affective states were reversed, and 12 items were
averaged to obtain the final score for psychological adjustment. Sociocultural adjustment
was measured by using Ward and Searle’s (1991) Sociocultural Adjustment Scale, with 17
items concerning skills needed to manage everyday social situations in a new culture (e.g.,
‘‘making friends your own age’’, ‘‘going on public transport’’, ‘‘seeing a doctor’’).
Participants rated each item on a 4-point difficulty scale which ranged from 1 ‘not difficult
at all’ and 4 ‘extremely difficult’. Scores were reverse-coded then averaged so that a higher
value indicated less difficulty in adapting socio-culturally. Australian cultural knowledge
was measured by the Australian Cultural Knowledge (ACK) Questionnaire developed and
validated by Kashima and Suppakitkumjorn (2004). ACK consisted of 32 items, each
presenting words that are unique to and important in Australian culture, such as the ‘first
fleet’, and ‘Ned Kelly’. Respondents indicated whether they had heard of the word or
expression before by selecting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ options, which were subsequently given the
score of 1 and 0, respectively. If ‘Yes’ option was selected, then respondents indicated the
subjective certainty of their knowledge of the word by selecting one from ‘very sure’, ‘more
or less sure’ and ‘not sure’, which were later coded as 2, 1, and 0, respectively. The score for
each item was 0 if ‘No’ option was selected; it was the product of the two scores, which
1
The number of conational ties ranged from 0 to 14, the mode being four. International ties ranged from 1 to 13
with the mode of two. Roughly 10% of respondents had no conational ties whereas no respondent was without
any international tie. Local ties ranged from 0 (n ¼ 33) to 10 (n ¼ 1), with the mode of zero. The pattern was
generally consistent with the previous reports that international students tend to experience difficulties in making
local friends (Bochner, Hutnik, & Furnham, 1985; Klineberg & Hull, 1979; Mullins, Quintrell, & Hancock, 1995).
As the distributions of social ties were skewed, we transformed these variables by adding 0.5 and then taking a
square root of the sum. Analyses using the original and the transformed scores of social ties indicated same
results, thus we will report results based on the original scores.
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ranged from 0 to 2, if ‘Yes’ option was selected. The scores were added over 32 questions to
obtain the final score of ACK. Heritage cultural identity and Australian university identity
were each measured by four items of membership sub-scale of the Collective Self-Esteem
Scale (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992). Respondents rated each item (e.g., ‘‘I am a worthy
member of the social group I belong to’’) with respect to each of two identities by using a 7-
point interval scale extended from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 ‘strongly agree’. The four
ratings were averaged for each identity. The five indices of acculturation all had a at a
satisfactory level (see the diagonal entries of the correlation matrix in Table 2) and were
positively intercorrelated except ACK and heritage cultural identity (r ¼ :15, p4:05).
ACK correlated most strongly with socio-cultural adjustment, as expected from the fact
that they both tap the cognitive component of acculturation. A secondary factor analysis
supported that these five indices were based on a single factor (explaining 49% of the total
variance).

2.2.3. Need for cognitive closure (NCC)

An individual difference in NCC was measured using the NCC Scale (Webster &
Kruglanski, 1994). The original 42-item scale consisted of five sub-scales measuring
‘preference for order’, ‘intolerance of ambiguity’, ‘preference for predictability’, ‘closed-
mindedness’, and ‘decisiveness’. Following Kosic et al. (2004), we used only 34 items
omitting the sub-scale of decisiveness. As in the original, these items were rated on a 5-
point scale ranging from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 ‘strongly agree’. A principle component
analysis found 12 dimensions with eigenvalues larger than 1, with eigenvalues declining
from 5.2, through 2.4, 2.2, 2.1, 2.0, 1.8, 1.5, 1.3, 1.2, 1.2, 1.1, to 1.0. We selected a
single-factor solution (explained 15% of the total variance). Using Maximum
Likelihood extraction method, nine items were identified to have a factor loading larger
than .45. The nine items included three each from the preference for order, preference
for predictability, and discomfort with ambiguity sub-scales, and clearly suggested
low tolerance for uncertainty (e.g., ‘When I am confused about an important issue, I feel
very upset’), thus maintaining the components of NCC we envisaged to measure. A scale
based on these nine items achieved a coefficient a of .80, which was better than with all 34
items, .75, and provided with a clearer pattern of results in general. Hence, the nine
items were averaged to obtain the measure of NCC and used in subsequent analyses
(see Table 1).

Table 1
The nine items used in the final NCC scale and their factor loadings

When I am confused about an important issue, I feel very upset. .62

I don’t like situations that are uncertain. .61
I don’t like to go into a situation without knowing what I can expect from it. .61
I hate to change my plans at the last minute. .61
I dislike unpredictable situations. .61
I enjoy having a clear and structured mode of life. .51
I find that establishing a consistent routine enables me to enjoy life more. .50
I feel uncomfortable when I don’t understand the reason why an event occurred in my .48
life.
I prefer to socialize with familiar friends because I know what to expect from them. .45
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2.3. Analyses of the data

Hypotheses were tested in multiple regression analyses. Patterns of correlations were

also examined. Each of five acculturation indices was regressed simultaneously on three
types of social ties, as well as English-speaking background and length of residence in
Australia on the first step. On the second step, NCC was added to the equation. The social
ties and NCC had been centered by subtracting the mean from individual scores (Aiken &
West, 1991). Finally, on the third step, two-way interactions of NCC and social ties were
added to the equation. Multicolinearity was examined and found to have little effect on the
results to be reported.

3. Results

3.1. Psychological adjustment

The first step of a regression analysis found psychological adjustment to be explained

reliably by both local and international ties, but not conational ties. As anticipated, the
greater numbers of local and international ties were associated with the better
psychological adjustment. The role of international ties in students’ psychological
adjustment has, in our knowledge, never been documented before. The lack of effects
by conational ties was contrary to our prediction; however, previous data have also been

Table 2
Means, standard deviations, coefficient a, and correlations among acculturation and related variables

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. English-speaking — — —
background
2. Time in Australia 27.69 20.74 .20* —
(in months)
3. Psychological 5.31 1.05 .34** .35** (.83)
adjustment
4. Sociocultural 3.00 .55 .33** .27** .46** (.89)
adjustment
5. Cultural 1.08 .68 .34** .33** .26** .35** (.93)
knowledge
6. Heritage cultural 5.62 1.22 .14 .15 .32** .32** .15 (.80)
identity
7. Australian 5.24 1.22 .21* .06 .46** .38** .26** .57** (.85)
university identity
8. Need for cognitive 4.67 .62
.18
.21*
.35**
.37**
.17
.12
.16 (.80)
closure
9. Local Australian 2.37 2.5 .01 .20* .26* .08 .36** .04 .16
.10 —
ties
10. International ties 3.87 2.8 .09
.04 .24* .10 .00 .22* .23*
.05 .04 —
11. Conational ties 4.07 2.9
.07
.03
.03 .06
.02 .12 .09 .07
.26*
.23*

Notes. Coefficients a are in parentheses. *po:01, **

po:05.
a
Native English speakers ¼ 1, non-natives ¼ 0.
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mixed (e.g., Ward & Kennedy, 1992, 1993). English-speaking background and time in
Australia also contributed positively toward psychological adjustment (see Table 2 for
pattern of correlations among variables and Table 3 for summary of regression analyses).
Consistent with our prediction, NCC was also found to be a significant predictor
of psychological adjustment. As expected, the higher the NCC, the lower the
psychological adjustment. Further, an interaction between NCC and local ties had a
significant effect on psychological adjustment, though interactions between NCC and
other types of ties were not significant. The pattern of significant interaction suggested that
having fewer local ties was associated with lower psychological adjustment when NCC
was high (see Fig. 1). Among high NCC respondents (n ¼ 50), the correlation between
local ties and psychological adjustment was significant and positive, rð50Þ ¼ :41, po:01,
suggesting that local ties were beneficial for their psychological adjustment. By contrast,
among low NCC individuals (n ¼ 50), this correlation was non-significant, r ¼ :10,
indicating that their psychological adjustment was unrelated to the quantity of local ties
they held.

Table 3
Hierarchical regression summary of acculturation indices

Criterion Psychological Sociocultural Cultural Heritage culture Australian Univ.

adjustment adjustment knowledge identity identity

Steps/predictors R2 b R2 b R2 b R2 b R2 b
*** ** *** * **
Step 1 .30 .17 .29 .07 .15
English speaking .28** .28** .30** .10 .20*
Time in Australia .26** .21* .21* .14
.01
Australian ties .22* .06 .34*** .05 .21*
International ties .24** .11
.01 .25* .25*
Conational ties .11 .13 .10 .20 .21*
Step 2 .34*** .25*** .29*** .12 .16**
** * **
English speaking .24 .24 .29 .10 .19
Time in Australia .22* .16 .20* .12
.03
Australian ties .21* .04 .34*** .05 .20*
International ties .23** .10
.01 .25* .25*
Conational ties .12 .13 .10 .20 .21*
NCC
.23**
.30**
.05 –.08
.12
Step 3 .40*** .29*** .33*** .18* .19*
English speaking .22* .24* .28** .07 .20*
Time in Australia .22* .16 .19* .12
.03
Australian ties .23** .08 .36*** .04 .21*
International ties .23** .07 .01 .30** .26*
Conational ties .04 .07 .03 .15 .18
NCC
.28**
.34**
.09
.11
.14
NCC  Australian .19* .02 .07 .14
.05
ties
NCC  International .08 .14
.07
.20*
.11
ties
NCC  Conational
.08
.12
.17
.11
.15
ties

Notes. *po:05, **
po:01, ***
po:001.
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7
Low NCC

Psychological adjustment
High NCC

4
Low High
Local Australian ties

Fig. 1. Psychological adjustment as a function of NCC and Australian ties.

3.2. Sociocultural adjustment

Sociocultural adjustment was explained by none of the three social ties, contrary to our
expectation. Nevertheless, English-speaking background and time in Australia contributed
positively and significantly to sociocultural adjustment. Apparently, the abilities and skills
tapped by the measure of sociocultural adjustment were better explained by the language
and time than social ties. NCC on the other hand contributed negatively to sociocultural
adjustment, contrary to Kosic et al. (2004) but consistent with our expectation. Within the
current data, therefore, NCC was associated with poorer sociocultural adjustment as well
as lower psychological adjustment. Contrary to our prediction and the previous research,
interactions between NCC and social ties had no impact on sociocultural adjustment.
There was currently no evidence to suggest that sociocultural adjustment of high NCC
individuals in particular was lowered by greater conational ties or facilitated by greater
local and international ties.

3.3. Cultural knowledge

In contrast to sociocultural adjustment, local ties contributed significantly and positively

to Australian cultural knowledge, as expected, over and above language background and
time in Australia that also had significant impacts. The greater the local ties, the more local
cultural knowledge the students had acquired. International ties did not contribute to
Australian cultural knowledge, however. The type of cultural knowledge measured by this
scale has been shown to take decades to develop (Kashima & Suppakitkumjorn, 2004). It
may be transmitted largely through interactions with native members of the community.
NCC did not contribute to cultural knowledge, contrary to expectation and to the result for
sociocultural adjustment. There was also no interaction effect involving NCC and social ties.

3.4. Heritage cultural identity

Heritage cultural identity was reliably predicted from international ties, while conational
ties made a marginally significant contribution. Local ties did not contribute. The result
suggests heritage cultural identity tends to be stronger among students who mix regularly
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7
Low NCC

Heritage Cultural Identity

High NCC
6

4
Low High
International ties

Fig. 2. Heritage cultural identity as a function of NCC and international ties.

with other international students. Data also suggested that language background and time
in Australia had no implication for heritage cultural identity. NCC was found to be non-
significant, contrary to Shah et al. (1998). Finally, our predictions regarding interaction of
NCC and social ties for heritage cultural identity was partly supported by data. Among
low NCC students, the greater the international ties, the stronger the heritage cultural
identity, rð50Þ ¼ :40, po:01; however, this tendency was absent among high NCC students,
rð50Þ ¼ :06, n.s. (see Fig. 2). In contrast, the expectation that conational ties enhance
heritage cultural identity of high NCC in particular gained no empirical support.

3.5. Australian university identity

Australian university identity was predicted from all three types of social ties. The effect
of conational ties was unexpected. The English-speaking background also contributed
positively. It appears that a greater involvement in university activities with students of all
cultural backgrounds makes Australian university identity stronger. It makes intuitive
sense that English fluency facilitates such involvement, and thereby identification with
their new university as well. Similar to heritage cultural identity, effect of NCC on
Australian university identity was not found. Further, no NCC by social tie interaction
was found, contrary to prediction.

4. Discussion

The present study primarily examined the relationship between international students’
acculturation and social networks they develop in the host society. We focused in
particular on social ties that students develop with other international students from
different countries as their implications for acculturation need to be understood. The
results suggested that the more international ties the students have developed in the new
country, the better adjusted they were psychologically. Students with greater international
ties also tended to identify more strongly with their heritage culture, and with their
Australian university. Hence, ties with other international students seem important for the
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development of new identities among international students as well as their psychological

adjustment.
The present study found results consistent with the previous literature that international
students with more, rather than less, local ties were psychologically better adjusted and had
greater knowledge of the host culture. Thus, personal contacts with local residents seem
important for international students. However, this study also found that sociocultural
adjustment was unrelated to social ties in general, contrary to previous studies that found
sociocultural adjustment to be better among those with more local ties in particular (Ward
& Kennedy, 1993; Ward & Searle, 1991). Given that these studies all focused on Asian
international students and have assessed sociocultural adjustment using similar measures,
the inconsistency seems due to different measures of social ties used. For instance, Ward
and her colleagues have measured both quality and quantity of interpersonal relations
whereas our present measure focused only on the quantity of interpersonal ties. The
quality of the interpersonal ties may be an important predictor of sociocultural
adjustment, and future research should include this factor when measuring social ties of
international students.
The present study further examined the role of individual difference in NCC in
international students’ acculturation, extending the recent research on immigrants and
NCC by Kosic et al. (2004). We found that high, compared to low, NCC individuals had
both poorer psychological adjustment and poorer sociocultural adjustment. Together
with the previous research, the result suggests that high NCC individuals find ambiguity
and uncertainty involved in the new cultural environment more stressful. On the
other hand, the poorer sociocultural adjustment shown by the high NCC individuals in
general is inconsistent with Kosic et al. (2004) who found high NCC immigrants’
sociocultural adjustment to be poorer only if they had conational reference groups at the
beginning. The present result may be due to the fact that a majority of the present
respondents had more conational than local ties in their social networks. Nonetheless, the
present study involved a relatively small sample size and the result needs to be re-examined
with a larger sample.
Another important finding of the present study was that NCC and local ties interacted
with each other in predicting psychological adjustment. Among high NCC individuals, the
more local Australian ties they had, the better their psychological adjustment was. This
tendency was not found among low NCC individuals, and this suggests that local ties are
beneficial for international students’ psychological wellbeing if they are high on need for
closure in particular. The uplifting effect of local ties for high NCC students, which was
absent in Kosic et al. (2004) study, may be due to the fact that many international students
to Australia wish to make local friends (Diss, 2003), whereas immigrants in the latter study
might have geared more towards economic gains of migration.
Further, the present study found NCC to have no main effect on the two social identities
observed. Unlike previous studies, these identities were no stronger among high NCC than
low NCC individuals. Instead, we found NCC to moderate the link between international
ties and heritage culture identity. As already discussed, heritage cultural identity was
stronger among students with more international ties; however, this tendency was
found only among low NCC individuals. That is, among low NCC individuals, but
not high NCC individuals, having greater international ties was associated with the
stronger heritage cultural identity. The present result is in fact not inconsistent with the
previous NCC research, because according to Kruglanski et al. (2002), high NCC people
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tend to favour their in-group only when the group appeals to them as a potential closure
provider. An in-group that seems heterogeneous and dissimilar to the self cannot be a
valuable closure provider, thus high NCC people tend to identify less with such an in-
group, compared with low NCC individuals. It is understandable, therefore, that our
low NCC international students with more international ties had stronger heritage
cultural identity. Interactions with other international students tend to make their heritage
cultural identity more salient in direct contrast to the others’ cultural heritages. Those
with high NCC, on the other hand, may have failed to develop stronger heritage
cultural identity in spite of having international ties because they tend to find such
social situations psychologically less settling and less appealing. As an alternative
explanation for the present data, however, it is also possible that among students who
initially held strong heritage cultural identity, those with low (vs. high) NCC embraced
their opportunity more to make greater international contacts. More research is needed to
better understand the relations among NCC, international ties, and heritage cultural
identity.
In contrast to heritage cultural identity, NCC and social ties had no interaction effect on
Australian university identity. Australian university identity was stronger among
international students with greater local and international ties, regardless of individual
difference in NCC. New social identity that newcomers develop in the new society is a
topic that deserves further research. The present study presented preliminary data to
suggest newcomers’ social networks and NCC have both potential implications for the new
and shifting identities. To clarify further the processes of identity change through cultural
contacts, further research applying longitudinal designs is needed.
The present study involved several limitations. First, our target was limited to Asian
students in universities. It is possible that students from and to other regions of the world,
or those who enrol in other types of educational institutions, encounter different social
conditions and different acculturation experiences from the present sample. Hence, results
of the present study may not be generalizable to international students in general. Second,
the present study involved a relatively small sample size, and the statistical power in
detecting interaction effects was quite limited. Thus these results, especially the interaction
effects involving NCC and social ties, should be replicated with larger samples. And third,
our index of social ties was based on the number of friends that our respondents listed.
Alternative measures that encompass qualitative aspects of relationships should also be
used in testing theories further.
In conclusion, the present study found international students’ acculturation to be
influenced significantly by their social ties, especially international ties, and their levels of
NCC. High NCC students tend to find their sojourn in the foreign country more unsettling
and stressful. Nevertheless, personal ties with local and other international students seem
to facilitate better psychological adjustment. Also, among students with low NCC, those
with greater personal ties with other international students hold stronger heritage cultural
identity. Further research should replicate these findings which are potentially useful for
those concerned with the success and wellbeing of millions of international students who
study around the world today and in the future.

Author note: The present study is based on part of the 4th-year Postgraduate Diploma
thesis submitted by the second author to La Trobe University under the supervision of the
first author.
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