A Study of Chinese Students' Adjustment in the U. S. A.

The cross-cultural adjustment of sixty-seven Chinese students of the University of Hawaii was studied. One hundred and thirty-two students who were about to depart for study abroad and 108 who where studying at home in Taiwan were selected as comparison groups. The students' concept of the character of Chinese and Americans, their main reasons for coming to the U.S., and their expected difficulties in the States showed very consistent pattern in the three groups. Their mental health was found to be related to their own American ''character' and their Chinese 'attitudes'. A small number of significant changes in the students' concepts after real exposure to the cross-cultural life may be used to explain some mechanism of the paranoid formation in the Chinese students.