Page 57 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

to examine the relative importance of these social interactions in perceived social support and, in turn, adjustment. This conceptualization extends the application of the reinforcement hypothesis in FtF and SNS communication in temporary migration context (Dienlin et al., 2017). Consequently, this conceptualization also expands earlier sojourners’ adjustment models that focused on FtF host-country network interactions (Berry, 2006; Ward et al., 2001). This study also contributes by extending the application of important theoretical assumptions in communication, such as the transactional feature of media effects and reinforcing spirals (Slater, 2015; Valkenburg et al., 2016). Specifically, our findings demonstrated reciprocal causal associations, particularly a negative feedback loop, between Facebook interactions with the host-country network and perceived social support of international students. Another contribution of this study is to disentangle the reciprocal causal associations of social interactions and perceived social support, as well as perceived social support and depression, that could occur in a long or a short span of time. The directionality of associations in both the long- and the short-term time lags are important contributions that were lacking in previous investigations (Meng et al., 2017; Trepte & Scharkow, 2016).
In terms of practical contributions, this study informs international students of the social factors that may contribute to their adjustment. Moreover, our findings bear some insights that might be useful for support providers (e.g., counselors, organizations, university offices, government institutions, etc.) in designing programs and services for sojourners. For instance, programs should gear towards organizing activities that encourage regular interactions between sojourners and host-country members. Also, there should be available trainings for both sojourners and host-country members that promote greater communication and understanding (e.g., language learning, intercultural competence training, etc.).
Limitations and recommendations
There are several limitations that need to be considered when interpreting the results. Longitudinal research on sojourners is scarce (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). This is one of the few longitudinal studies on international students. In their systematic review of articles on international students’ psychosocial adjustment in the United States, Zhang and Goodson (2011) found that the sample sizes of the 64 articles they reviewed ranged from 21 to 631. Based on this finding, this study can be considered having a good sample size. Nevertheless, the number of participants limited statistical power and prevented the inclusion of potential control variables
SNS, Support, and Depression 55