Page 80 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

network on homesickness. We suggest that future studies should provide an in- depth examination of the dynamic processes within the various types of social interactions and their impact on homesickness.
FtF interaction and homesickness. The results showed that FtF interaction with the host-country network did not predict homesickness. It is likely that international students’ level of FtF social interactions with significant others in the host country, whether it is thriving or failing, is distinct from how much they miss home. It is also possible that the absence of effect might be due to the paradoxical effects of FtF interaction with the host-country network on homesickness found in previous studies. It has been shown that FtF social interactions with the host country could both decrease and increase homesickness (Hannigan, 2005; Pedersen et al., 2011; Thurber & Walton, 2012); and the presence of both effects might have cancelled out each other. In our research, we only measured frequency of social interactions. Future research should look more into the mechanisms that delineate when FtF interactions might be helpful in reducing homesickness.
Homesickness and Sociocultural Adjustment
Homesickness had an immediate negative impact on sociocultural adjustment. The results suggest that whenever international students felt homesick, they had greater difficulty in managing their daily life and functioning in their new social environment. Indeed, homesick individuals have a hard time fitting in and navigating their new environment (Berry, 2006; Constantine et al., 2007; Poyrazli & Lopez, 2007; Stroebe et al., 2015a&b; Ward et al., 2001). However, we did not find any long-term effects of homesickness on sociocultural adjustment. Homesick individuals were not necessarily less adjusted in the host environment in the long-term. Nonetheless, whenever one feels homesick, he or she is more likely to perceive and experience adjustment difficulties. For example, when international students felt homesick, they had greater difficulty in making friends or dealing with climate. Our results suggest that the effects of homesickness on sociocultural adjustment is temporary. Our findings also showed that sociocultural adjustment did not impact homesickness. This implies that an international student might experience homesickness, whether or not they were experiencing social and practical issues in managing their daily lives in the host country. Together, our results provide partial support to the model we proposed. We found Facebook interaction with the host-country network could have an effect on homesickness, and, in turn, homesickness had an immediate effect on sociocultural adjustment.
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