Work-family balance and psychosocial adjustment of international students

This study examines married international graduate student psychosocial adjustment by modifying and testing a model derived from Searle and Ward (1990). Searle and Ward (1990) differentiate between psychological (i.e., well-being and life satisfaction) and sociocultural adjustment (i.e., ability to fit into a new culture) in the cross-cultural adaptation process. The process is influenced by personality, life changes, social support, cultural distance, length of stay in a new culture, and the quantity of interactions with host nationals (Ward & Kennedy, 1993a; 1994; Ward & Searle, 1991). Using structural equation modeling, I investigated how work-family balance mediates the relationship between personality traits, gender roles, social support, and psychosocial adjustment. Data were collected from 243 married international graduate students via an online survey that included: (a) a demographic form, (b) Scales of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff, 1989), (c) Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (Ward & Kennedy, 1999), (d) Work-Family Balance Scale (Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, & Weitzman, 2001), (e) two subscales of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem, 1974), (f) Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999), and (g) Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). According to SEM results, certain personality characteristics such as extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness ease the psychosocial adjustment process, whereas personality traits such as neuroticism make the process more difficult for married international graduate students. In addition, being extraverted, agreeable, and conscientious contribute to balancing academic and family life, whereas having neurotic tendencies (e.g., experiencing depression, anxiety) detracts from maintaining work-family balance. Work-family balance did not mediate the relationship between personality traits, gender roles, social support, and psychosocial adjustment. More specifically, the paths from gender roles and social support to psychosocial adjustment and work-family balance were non-significant, thereby indicating poor dyadic relationships between the variables. I discuss the findings by considering clinical implications and making suggestions for future research