Page 64 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

Tilburg, 2005). Sociocultural adjustment refers to one’s “ability to fit in, to acquire culturally appropriate skills, and to negotiate interactive aspects of the host environment” (Ward & Kennedy, 1999, p. 660). In short, sociocultural adjustment refers to how well a sojourner is able to manage daily life in the host country (Berry, 2006). Among college students, homesickness was a predictor of lower adjustment (English et al., 2017). However, homesickness and adjustment may have reciprocal associations. Homesickness and adjustment are parallel reactions to being in a new environment and they may trigger each other, “causing incremental difficulties” (Stroebe et al., 2015b, p. 6). Thus, this study also aimed to contribute to existing literature by investigating the reciprocal associations of homesickness and sociocultural adjustment.
Taken together, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the impact of three types of social interactions (i.e., FtF interaction with the host-country network, Facebook interaction with the host-country network, Facebook interaction with the home-country network) on homesickness, and, in turn, the impact of homesickness on sociocultural adjustments. Corollary to this goal is to address the questions of directionality of associations and temporal precedence between social interactions and homesickness, as well as between homesickness and sociocultural adjustment.
Theoretical Grounding
International student sojourners are individuals who leave their home countries to pursue academic careers in another country for a temporary period (Ward, Burnham, & Furnham, 2001). Compared to long-term migrants (e.g., those who intend to permanently settle in the new location), sojourners expect to return to the place of origin once the purpose of stay has been achieved. Thus, for international students, the place of origin is still what is considered “home” and home-country relationships are still a salient part of their lives (Ye, 2006).
Being away from home and significant others may cause distress and suffering for many individuals (Thurber & Walton, 2012). Homesickness is a negative psychological state primarily due to separation from significant others and familiar surroundings (Archer, Ireland, Amos, Broad, & Currid, 1998; Stroebe et al., 2015b). It is characterized by negative emotions, ruminations about home, and even include somatic symptoms (Van Tilburg, 2005). In its mild form, it
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