Implicit acculturation and the academic adjustment of Chinese student sojourners in Australia

Objective
Chinese students comprise the largest group of foreign‐born tertiary students studying in Australia, and these students face unique challenges when striving toward their academic goals. The challenges including acculturation stress, culture shock, and studying in a foreign language. In this article, we explore implicit acculturation strategies of China‐born student sojourners in Australia, and how this relates to academic outcomes.
Method
In Study 1, the capacity for the go/no‐go association task to assess implicit cultural identification was established in local samples of local students (39 in Australia, 36 in China). These data were then used as a comparison after measuring the implicit acculturation of students studying abroad. Thus, in Study 2, 68 China‐born student sojourners in Australia responded to this measure of implicit acculturation, as well as levels of academic adjustment, acculturation stress, and life satisfaction.
Results
The sojourning sample demonstrated implicit separation acculturation attitudes, and moreover the excessive implicit associations with their home (Chinese) culture suggested an implicit cultural reaffirmation effect. Implicit acculturation was associated with increases in acculturation stress and decreases in life satisfaction, academic lifestyle, and motivation.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that Chinese student sojourners may not be able to (or choose not to) self‐integrate within the Australian‐based education community; however, this implicit cultural reaffirmation may be beneficial for ameliorating education‐related outcomes.