Psychological Wellbeing of Postsecondary International Students: Moderated Mediating Effects of Social Support and Cultural Adjustment

Abstract: International students in postsecondary education face numerous difficulties as they integrate academically, socially, and culturally into new cross-cultural environment, and the compounded challenges negatively affect international students’ mental health. Guided by conservation of resources theory, the current study aims to examine how international students’ positive psychological capital (PsyCap) in a Korean postsecondary institution is related to cultural adjustment and psychological well-being and how cultural adjustment mediates the relationship between PsyCap and well-being. We also explore the moderation of social support on the relationship between PsyCap and cultural adjustment, in turn, its moderated mediation of cultural adjustment between PsyCap and well-being. Data were collected from international students at a large public university in the South Korea. Structural equation modeling and moderating analysis were employed to analyze 275 cases. The results indicated that international students’ PsyCap was positively related to their cultural adjustment and psychological well-being. International students’ cultural adjustment also mediated the relationship between their PsyCap and psychological well-being. Finally, social support moderated the effects of PsyCap on their cultural adjustment. Discussion, implications, and recommendations for future research are provided.