Acculturative Stress, Cognitive Functioning and Role of Social Support among Overseas Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54938/ijemdss.2026.05.3.730Keywords:
Acculturative stress, Cognitive functioning, Social support, Overseas students, Higher educationAbstract
Acculturative stress can be a substantial psychological challenge experienced by the overseas students while adjusting to novel socio-cultural and academic environment in the receiving culture. The course of adaptation can effect cognitive functioning of the students. On the other hand, social support can mitigate these effects by acting as a protective buffer. Therefore, this research examines the role of acculturative stress and cognitive functioning in overseas students enrolled in Pakistani universities, while examining the extent to which the social support contributes to coping with acculturative challenges by employing a cross sectional research design. The sample comprised 181 overseas students (108 males, 73 females) aged 18 to 35 years, enrolled across multiple universities were recruited through convenient and snowball sampling techniques. Acculturative stress was evaluated using the Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students. Cognitive Failures Questionnaire was employed to assess cognitive failures and Personal Resource Questionnaire-2000 was used to assess social support. In bivariate analyses, higher level of acculturative stress was negatively associated with poor cognitive functioning and positively correlated with social support. Furthermore, an independent-samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference in acculturative stress, cognitive functioning and social support scores between male and female students. This research concluded that overseas students experiencing acculturative stress are more prone to experience decline in cognitive functioning. The study also provided evidence that acculturative stress escalates the individual’s attempt to access more social support. The poor cognitive functioning hinders the initiative to access social support in the aftermath of acculturative stress. This study highlighted the increased need of counselling programs, focusing multicultural aspects of counselling and social interaction with local students by group oriented activities.
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