Personality Traits in Relation to Sociocultural Adaptation of International Students in Thailand and New Zealand

Etic studies on international students who venture into higher education in a culture distinct from their own create an impetus for perusing their personality traits and adeptness to the new culture, apropos to working harmoniously, reducing culture shock and acculturative stress, and obtaining the anticipated aspirations. The objective was to explore personality traits as a culture-specific aspect and examine how international students select a country to pursue education contingent upon Eastern and Western sociocultural variations. Harnessing the convenient sampling technique, this quantitative paper used the in-person drop method to gather data from 200 international students from one international university in Christchurch, New Zealand, and one international university in Bangkok, Thailand. The relationship between personality traits adapted from Noe et al., (2015), an instrument to measure the Big Five personality traits, constituting 25 items, and the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale adapted from Wilson (2013), constituting 21 items, was hypothesized. Results of the structural equation modeling, MANOVA, and ANOVA post hoc analysis fully or partially endorsed the prognosis hypothesized, denoting a relationship between the Big Five personality traits and sociocultural adaptation as well as differences on the dimensions of the Big Five personality traits and sociocultural adaptation between international students pursuing education in two diverse cultures. Evolving changes to personality traits could be arduous; albeit, immersing students in orientation programs prior to enrolment could result in mastery of skills required for acculturation.