The impacts of acculturation strategies and social support on the cross-cultural adaptation of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government would like to enhance Hong Kong’s status as a regional education hub. It is argued that if we do not consider how to help the non-local students to adapt to the Hong Kong society, it may influence the students’ mental heath and academic performance. In turn, this may affect the development of a reputed regional education hub. In recent years, most of the non-local graduates and postgraduates come from Mainland China. It is expected that this trend will continue. Therefore, this research intends to understand the relationships between cross-cultural adaptation, acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization) and social support (local friend support, non-local friend support, family support, and university support) among this kind of students. The findings showed that cross-cultural adaptation may relate to social support and integration positively, but it may relate to marginalization and separation negatively; and social support did significantly predict cross-cultural adaptation rather than acculturation strategies. Accordingly, it is suggested that the government and universities should encourage the students’ cross-cultural adaptation through enhancing their social support networks with their local and non-local friends, family, and the university. Copyright © 2010 Hong Kong Educational Research Association.