- Title
- Attachment, mindfulness, and social integration in the adjustment of Australian and Chinese university students: a cross-cultural comparison
- Creator
- Hao, Jichun
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2019
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- University education has become a national priority for many countries, but for individual students it introduces new academic, social, and emotional challenges. While this is a very exciting period, studies from Western and Eastern cultures indicated that university students experience enhanced psychological distress at a higher rate compared to the rest of the population. To address the gaps in the previous research, this project examines an array of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors to compare how students in a Western (Australia) and an Eastern (China) country adjust to university. Individuals’ mental representations of themselves and of others, or attachment orientations, influence how they rely on attachment figures to regulate emotions. These attachment expectancies also affect the tendency to seek social engagement at university, which itself is important for wellbeing. Trait mindfulness is argued to represent a set of individually based emotion regulation strategies, moderating one’s responses to sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Students’ cultural beliefs, such as the endorsement of individualism and collectivism, are also related to psychological health through multiple pathways. As the first study to consider these factors in one study, the current investigation proposed and examined a model of university adjustment in two cultural groups at two time points. At Wave 1, 426 Australian and 626 Chinese students were recruited to complete an online survey. Both groups of students showed higher distress levels compared to previous data on general public and student samples. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses failed to demonstrate measurement invariance for the five measures so the two groups were analysed separately. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that the proposed model with some modifications was supported. Trait mindfulness mediated the paths from both attachment dimensions to psychological distress, with the path from trait mindfulness to psychological distress being extremely large in both cultural groups. However, university social integration showed no effect on psychological distress and was not a significant mediator in either group. Despite these similarities, there were some cross-cultural differences in relation to university social integration and collectivism. After six months, there was a high attrition rate, with only 87 Australian and 84 Chinese students completing the follow-up survey. Modified analyses indicated that neither group of students experienced significant changes in psychological distress over time. Overall, the findings highlighs the challenges with respect to conceptual and statistical approaches to cross-cultural research. The large overlap between trait mindfulness and psychological distress may reflect problems in the definitions and/or operationalisation of dispositional mindfulness and warrants further investigation. Approaches to the role of social integration in university adjustment also need to be re-considered. The limitations of the thesis, such as the self-report, correlational data, the focus on two selected cultures, and the high attrition rate at the second wave were also discussed.
- Subject
- university students; mental health; longitudinal study; Australia; China; cross-cultural; attachment styles; trait mindfulness; social Integration; university adjustment; measurement invariance; mutli-group comparison; structural equation modelling
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1405218
- Identifier
- uon:35457
- Rights
- Copyright 2019 Jichun Hao
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 167 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |