Influencing Factors of Cross-cultural Adaptation Process of Chinese Students Studying in the Upper Northern Thai Universities

Abstract

With the development of China’s ‘One Belt and One Road’(OBOR) Initiative, many Chinese students have chosen Thai universities for foreign study in recent years. As usual, problems of cross-cultural adaptation becoming the primary issues they encounter during their stay in Thailand. Based on a survey of 314 Chinese undergraduates studying at eight universities in the upper northern region of Thailand, this study analyzed the influencing factors of the cross-cultural adaptation process of these Chinese students. It tested the Young Yun Kim’s structure model, which contains six dimensions of determining aspects on international students’ cross-cultural adaptation process. A quantitative research method was applied in this article by using a structured questionnaire as a tool to collect primary data. The data analysis was conducted by using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regressions. The findings indicated that five dimensions, i.e., Communication Competence (CC), Host Social Communication (HSC), Intercultural Transformation (IT), Environment (EN), and Predisposition (PR) are significant determining aspects for the cross-cultural adaptation process of Chinese students. Furthermore, nine influencing factors out of these five dimensions had significant positive impacts on the cross-cultural adaptation process. Therefore they are considered as the main influencing factors.