Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Ethic Communication: Two Structural Equation Models

This study adapts the cognition-affect-behavior framework in analyzing cross-cultural adaptation and proposes a structural equation model in which communication competence, cultural empathy, and social interaction predict cross-cultural adaptation. The results of structural equation modeling using LISREL VII (K. G. Joreskog & D. Sorbom, 1981) suggest that the model has adequate fit of the data and that the cognition-affect-behavior framework is effective in analyzing cross-cultural adaptation, vis-a-vis that of social interaction with the host people. Although ethnic communication has negative relationships with cultural empathy, communication competence, and social interaction, it does not have a significant negative effect on cross-cultural adaptation. Future research needs to further explore the relationship between ethnic communication and cross-cultural adaptation.