Crossing digital borders: Exploring the role of non-Chinese social media use in the cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese international students

The use of social media may play an important role in international students’ cross-cultural adaptation. When moving to a new country, many international students maintain the same set of social media they use back home. For Chinese international students, however, pursuing studies in a different country means not only physical but also digital border-crossing. Aside from the Chinese social media platforms (e.g., WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu) they use to communicate with the home-country network, they also have to use non-Chinese social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) to connect with the host-country network. This paper addresses the research question: How does the engagement of Chinese international students on non-Chinese social media within the host country context impact their cross-cultural adaptation? Using a cross-sectional survey, we examined the associations of engagement in non-Chinese social media platforms of international Chinese students ( N = 352, M age = 24.13) with their psychological and sociocultural adaptations. We proposed and employed a comprehensive measure of engagement in (non-Chinese) social media. Results indicate that higher engagement in non-Chinese social media significantly enhanced both psychological and sociocultural cross-cultural adaptations. The association between non-Chinese social media engagement and psychological adaptation was stronger for those who intend to stay in the host country. This study validates previous findings that social media engagement with the host-country network is important in international students’ adjustment. Moreover, this study presents a comprehensive measure of social media engagement to better capture international students’ social media usage. • Higher engagement in non-Chinese social media boosted psychological and sociocultural adaptation. • Stronger link between non-Chinese social media use and adaptation for those planning to stay in the host country. • Offers a detailed social media engagement scale using six indicators of platform use and emotional ties.