Cultural Adjustment Difficulties and Career Development of International College Students

This study examined the extent to which two dimensions of cultural adjustment difficulties (i.e., acculturative distress and intercultural competence concerns) predicted two specific career development outcomes (i.e., career aspirations and career outcome expectations) in a sample of 261 international college students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Although no significant differences among the participants were found by region of origin and gender, multivariate multiple regression analyses indicated that higher levels of acculturative distress were predictive of lower levels of career outcome expectations among these international students. Furthermore, findings revealed that greater intercultural competence concerns were predictive of lower career aspirations and lower career outcome expectations. Implications of the findings for career counseling with African, Asian, and Latin American international students are discussed.