The Relationship between Chinese International Students' Participation in Support Programs and Their Adaptation to University Life: Focusing on the Mediating Effect of Ego-resilience and the Moderating Effect of Interactionion with Professors

This study examines the impact of Chinese international students' participation in support programs in South Korea on their adaptation to university life, with a particular focus on the mediating role of ego-resilience and the moderating effect of teacher-student relationships. The findings indicate that engagement in support programs significantly enhances university adjustment, suggesting that such programs play a crucial role in facilitating international students' adaptation. Furthermore, ego-resilience is found to partially mediate the relationship between support program participation and university adjustment, highlighting its function as a positive psychological resource that helps students manage environmental challenges and improve their adaptability. While the moderating effect of teacher-student relationships on the link between support program participation and university adjustment is not significant, it does exhibit a significant moderating influence on the relationship between support programs and ego-resilience. Specifically, a strong teacher-student relationship amplifies the positive effects of support program participation on ego-resilience, thereby further enhancing students' adaptability. These findings underscore the importance of fostering positive teacher-student relationships to maximize the benefits of support programs. Based on these results, it is recommended that universities establish clear evaluation criteria for support programs, strengthen psychological counseling mechanisms to enhance students' ego-resilience, and actively cultivate supportive teacher-student interactions to promote the holistic development of international students. The limitation of this study is that the sample consists solely of Chinese students. Future research should expand the scope to include international students from diverse national and regional backgrounds to improve the generalizability of the findings.