Intercultural willingness to communicate between anxiety and uncertainty management on intercultural adjustment among international students at public universities in Malaysia

The digital information era has reduced barriers among countries, leading to increased educational migration and cross-cultural communication in higher educational institutions. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international students in Malaysian universities has significantly increased in recent years, resulting in a rich diversity of nationalities on campus. This presents a challenge for both international students and the educational system and highlights the need to explore intercultural adjustment from an intergroup/interpersonal communication perspective. In this study, the theoretical arguments of the Theory of Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) were tested on 388 international students at the University Putra Malaysia and the University Malaya through a survey using stratified random sampling. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and other statistical methods were employed to analyze the data and test ten hypotheses. The study aimed to understand how international students adjust to new cultures and environments, particularly concerning anxiety and uncertainty management. The results revealed that understanding intercultural adjustment may reduce uncertainty and anxiety toward different cultures and environments, as well as improve intergroup/interpersonal interaction on campus. Seven superficial causes were found to be positively correlated with anxiety and uncertainty reduction, thereby justifying the AUM theory's assumptions. Additionally, this study introduced the mediator 'intercultural willingness to communicate' in the theoretical framework. Results showed that intercultural willingness to communicate partially mediated the relationship between uncertainty/anxiety management and intercultural adjustment. The two superficial causes failed to correlate with anxiety management/ uncertainty management prospectively. Except for the mediator of intercultural willingness to communicate, other factors play a different role in this relationship. Additionally, this research result reflects on the emotion and personal experience to influence the relationship between reaction to hosts and uncertainty management, motivation to react with hosts, and anxiety management respectively. This theoretical framework can imply intercultural training and courses. This study contributed to higher education institutions, enhancing the awareness of culture and communication on campus, aside from academic activities, and considering culturalized communication interaction as a potential strategy to enhance intergroup/interpersonal communication and solve intercultural adjustment.

Text 123431.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18727

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