Page 65 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

could help instigate the development of coping skills and motivates relationship maintenance behaviors with significant others (Stroebe et al., 2015b; Thurber & Walton, 2012). However, intense or severe homesickness can manifest itself as an obsession and an overwhelming emotion, and can be painful and debilitating (Furnham, 2005; Thurber & Walton, 2012). Extremely homesick individuals may suffer psychologically (e.g., feel miserable, anxious, lonely, depressed, apathetic, listless) and physically (e.g., appetite loss, attention loss, sleep disturbances, headaches) (Thurber & Walton, 2012; Van Tilburg, 2005). Severe homesickness may lead to withdrawal from school and further social isolation (Thurber & Walton, 2012). Also, homesickness has been linked to Internet addiction (Ni, Yan, Chen, & Liu, 2009).
Social interactions may have a direct impact on one’s experience of homesickness (Berry, 2006; English et al., 2017; Van Vliet, 2001). In turn, homesickness may impact sociocultural adjustment (Berry, 2006; Ward et al., 2001). Based on these theoretical assumptions and previous research findings, we proposed a baseline model where social interactions are predictors of homesickness, which, in turn, is a predictor of sociocultural adjustment. From this baseline model, we accounted for the possible reciprocal effects between social interactions and homesickness, as well as homesickness and sociocultural adjustment. Figure 1 displays the baseline model and the proposed relations of social interactions, homesickness, and sociocultural adjustment. The rationale for the various components and predictions in the model are discussed more extensively in the succeeding sections.
Figure 1. The proposed model for three types of interaction (FtF interaction with the host-country network, Facebook interaction with the host-country network, and Facebook interaction with the home-country network), homesickness, and sociocultural adjustment.
SNS, Homesickness, and Adjustment 63