The Effect of Acculturation on Chinese International Students’ Usage of Facebook and Renren
Year: 2013
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Lisa Hanasono, AdvisorDrawing from the theoretical framework of uses and gratifications theory, this project explored the ways that acculturation affects Chinese international college students' usage of two social networking sites, Facebook and Renren.An online survey was conducted to gather data about Chinese international students' acculturation levels and their usage of and gratifications for Facebook (N = 144) and Renren (N = 106).Pearson correlations and bootstrapping analyses were performed.Results showed that the adaptation to American culture was positively related to participants' gratifications for and usage of Facebook.Moreover, gratifications mediated the relationship between acculturation and Facebook usage.Similarly, participants' identification with Chinese culture was positively associated with their gratifications for Renren.However, acculturation was not found to be correlated with Renren usage.These findings have several implications for uses and gratifications theory, the bidimensional model of acculturation, and ethnic media use studies.In addition, this study provides suggestions for acculturative stress coping programs and marketers' use of social networking sites.iv ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Hanasono, my advisor and thesis committee chair, for her tremendous help and support for this project.Thank you for sharing your expertise with me, always giving me great advice, and generously devoting your time to help me with statistical problems.Each meeting with you made me refreshed and reenergized.The project would not be possible without you.I would like to thank the rest of my committee.Dr. Bradshaw, the idea for this project emerged in your Social Scientific Methods class, and I cannot thank you enough for helping
Author: Lanming Chen
Institution: Bowling Green State University
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2599267986