The influence of social skills on getting social support for adolescents during study abroad: A case study of Japanese short-term exchange students

This study investigates how short-term international students get social support and achieve cross-cultural adjustment during study abroad using interviews based on a recall method. The participants of the study are 8 Japanese students who studied in the U.S for about 6 months to one year. They were asked about their study abroad experiences in relation to their cross-cultural adaptation and about their social support networks. Two findings were obtained. First, the participants of the study could be roughly divided into two groups. The 6 students of the first group(enjoym ent group) enjoyed their study abroad, which implies they achieved cross-cultural adjustment, while the other 2 students of the second group(non-enjoyment group) did not enjoy it. Second, the enjoyment group were able to obtain more social support than the non-enjoyment group. It is inferred from the study that the following 3 things are useful in obtaining social support: to acquire social skills, to put the skills into practice and not to give up too quickly. Thus, the results of the study imply that both a larger repertoire of social skills and more motivation to use them would be advantageous in achieving the cross-cultural adjustment of short-term international students through gaining social support.

国立大学留学生指導研究協議会

2008-03

English(eng)

journal article

VoR

1343-4683

留学生交流・指導研究

10

69

84

科学研究費補助金（萌芽研究No.16530403 代表・田中共子）

010a Journal Articles　=　雑誌掲載論文

https://hdl.handle.net/10086/22074