Psychological adaptation and acculturation of the Turkish students in the United States

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2004
Bektaş, Dilek Yelda
The purpose of this present study was to examine the psychological adaptation of the Turkish students in the U.S. by examining the acculturation variables in Berry̕s (1997) acculturation framework. The sample of this study was the 132 voluntary Turkish students enrolled in various colleges in the U.S. contacted through various Turkish Students Associations of colleges in the U.S., Yahoo groups of the Turkish people who live in the U.S., and Intercollegiate Turkish Student Society. The participants in San Antonio, Texas were contacted by the researcher. The scales used in the study were; a demographic variable questionnaire prepared by the researcher, Perceived Social Support by Friends Questionnaire, modified version of Acculturation Attitudes Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Satisfaction with Life Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Cultural Distance Scale developed for the present study. Reliability studies of the scales used for the sample of the present study were conducted. Data were analyzed by various statistical analyses. The analyses used in the present study were, multiple hierarchical regression analyses, correlations, t-tests and ANOVAs. Results of the study indicated that Turkish students are found psychologically well adjusted to their new environments in the U.S., satisfied with their new cultural contexts and mentally healthy. Self-esteem, previous travel experience, and met expectations predicted 51 % of the variance in depression; self-esteem, met expectations, English proficiency, perceived social support, and perceived discrimination predicted 41 % of the variance in satisfaction with life. In terms of acculturation attitudes, separation attitude was found to be the most preferred acculturation attitude among the Turkish students and female students were found to prefer integration attitude more than male students. Keywords: Acculturation

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Citation Formats
D. Y. Bektaş, “Psychological adaptation and acculturation of the Turkish students in the United States,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2004.