Work

The Longitudinal Examination of Associations Among Coping Styles, Sociocultural Context, and Re-Entry Stress After Study Abroad

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This research explored how approach, acceptance, and avoidance coping styles predicted re-entry stress. Second, it examined how home country sociocultural factors (individualism/collectivism, flexibility/monumentalism, cultural heterogeneity, and Human Development Index) predicted re-entry stress. Third, interaction effects between coping styles and country-level variables on re-entry stress were explored. We analyzed data from an 18-month longitudinal study which followed 1485 high school students before going abroad, while staying abroad, and after returning home. Students came from 45 home countries and studied abroad for 8-10 months. When controlling for baseline levels of stress, multilevel modeling analyses showed that acceptance coping predicted lower re-entry stress while avoidance coping predicted greater re-entry stress. Participants returning home to countries with higher collectivism and cultural homogeneity experienced greater re-entry stress. Collectivism moderated the effect of approach coping on re-entry stress, so that coping by not approaching the stressor was associated with greater stress in collectivist cultures.

Source: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

DOI: 10.1177/01461672251391059

Authors: Adela Černigoj, Paul E. Jose, Ágnes Szabó, Nicolas Geeraert

Institutions: Victoria University of Wellington, University of Essex

Language: English

Topic: International Student and Expatriate Challenges

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900