Sociocultural Adaptation of International Students From Neighboring and Distant Countries: Integrating Analytical Contexts

Abstract

This article presents a comparative study of the sociocultural adaptation of international students coming to Russia from neighboring (former Soviet republics) and distant countries and studying at the universities of the South Russian region. The preliminary overview of the studies reflects the different contexts in which the problem of adaptation is studied: economic, political, ethno-cultural-differential, and socio-identitarian. It is noted that the Russian approach to the organization of the educational process in groups of international students is characterized by its integrative nature. The implementation of educational tasks includes communicative opportunities for adaptation. This increases the well-being of international students in everyday life. At the same time, concern for the quality of the educational process and advanced teaching technologies affects the prestige and, consequently, the economic competitiveness of the university and the international status of Russian higher education. The study of various aspects of international students’ adaptation – psychological (resources) and sociocultural (expression) – was conducted on a group of 397 individuals, mainly from countries with Eastern culture, 247 men and 150 women. Among them, 110 were from distant countries, and 287 were from neighboring countries. We used an express diagnosis method developed based on an adapted version of the method “Self-assessment of psychological adaptability” by A.L. Svensitsky and the scales “Social commitment to the country” and “Cultural commitment to the country” from the questionnaire by S.V. Frolova. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used for statistical analysis of the obtained data. The psychological and sociocultural adaptation of respondents from both subgroups showed a similar correlation between adaptation resources and their expressions at p 0.01. At the same time, significant differences between the samples were found in the indicators. The students who came to study from distant countries (Asian and African countries) showed low psychological (active and communicative) potential for successful sociocultural adaptation, while they had high expectations for successful adaptation. Improving their adaptation potential through educational means can be achieved by combining academic work with problem-solving activities in the educational, vocational, social, and communication domains. Students from neighboring countries (former Soviet republics) based their claims of successful adaptation on the social ties between the countries but simultaneously showed a distance from Russian cultural values. In this case, the work of educators would be effective if they continued to develop positive dynamics for intercultural relations and incorporate the traditions of interethnic good neighborliness on the territory of the southern region of Russia.