Homesickness and Psychological Distress in Asian International Students: The Potential Mediating Roles of Social Connectedness and Universal-Diverse Orientation

Homesickness is one of the most prevalent and problematic acculturative stressors experienced by Asian international college students (e.g., Lu, 1990; Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Ying, 2005). However, research has yet to examine variables that may account for how homesickness progresses into psychological distress for a percentage of these students (e.g., Tochkov et al., 2010). Sampling Asian international students (N = 386) at various U.S. American institutions, the present study explored social connectedness (SC) and universal-diverse orientation (UDO) as potential mediators of the relationship between homesickness and psychological distress. Two primary and two alternative sequential mediational models were tested. Each model offered evidence supporting the position that, accounting for age, 1) homesickness, SC, UDO, and psychological distress are meaningfully connected in Asian international college students and 2) when arranged in a multiple mediation sequence, the first three of these variables help to explain score variance in the fourth. The findings enhance our understanding of how homesickness manifests in this understudied population and can be used to inform the design of more effective counseling interventions.