Predictors Of Psychological Readjustment To The Heritage Culture:A Study Of Chinese Students Returned From The U.K.

Globalization makes the world a small village now and a growing number of Chinese students tend to go broad for study.While substantial literature exists exploring the adaptation of the entry period and culture shock encountered by individuals entering a foreign culture,much of the literature focusing on returnees' readjustment to the home country when they come back is very limited.Insufficient research has been conducted to explore the predictors of readjustment of the repatriates.Actually,many returnees find it more challenging to readjust to their heritage culture,in which the returnees grew up,after spending a significant period of time abroad and then adjusting to the host culture,namely,the foreign culture they contact with in the period of living abroad.Instead of the maladjustment to the living environment of the host country,like language,weather,and eating habits,the main difficulties they have to overcome when coming back are their psychological readjustment to their home country.Thus,this thesis,focusing on this specific aspect,explored the psychological readjustment on re-entry to their heritage culture.This study mainly examined whether a set of variables,including perceived cultural distance,perceived cultural conflict between the home and host culture,and cultural identification with home and host culture,could predict psychological readjustment,which may be embodied in the feeling of stress,anxiety,depression as well as the overall psychological readjustment.In order to research the predictors of the psychological readjustment process,the author used a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative research.The author firstly analyzed the data collected in the questionnaire by the help of SPSS.Then based on the primary findings of the quantitative data analysis,a qualitative interview was conducted to better probe into the returnees' deeper thoughts.The results show that cultural conflict and home culture identification are significantly associated with returnee's psychological readjustment upon re-entry to their home culture,and perceived cultural distance also has a relative association with returnee's readjustment.Specifically,strong heritage culture identification predicts better psychological readjustment,whereas greater cultural conflict and perceived cultural distance generally predict poorer readjustment.The heritage culture identification also have a significant influence on the cultural conflict.In addition,thereturnee's gender and the length of staying abroad also play important roles in their psychological readjustment.Based on the research results,the author have proposed three suggestions to improve the returnees' psychological readjustment.Personal and social communications help to reduce cultural distance.Psychological preparation before returning helps to avoid greater depression.Strong identification of Chinese culture helps to make sense of coming home.In conclusion,the returnees' psychological maladjustment to the heritage culture does exist and various from person to person.Since some variables are significant in predicting the returnees' psychological readjustment,future studies should draw more attention to the returnees' re-entry process to help them better re-adapt to the home country.