Emotional Resilience of Postgraduate Students from Mainland China in Hong Kong

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a model of emotional resilience in acculturation for students from mainland China in HK. Specifically, it aims at understanding the protective mechanisms of cognitive appraisal, meaning-focused coping, meaning of life, and acculturative strategy in the relationship between acculturative stressor and emotional well-being. A cross-sectional research design was adopted by this study. The proposed model was tested by a total of 400 mainland postgraduate students from six universities in Hong Kong. The participants were recruited to complete a questionnaire which included: (1) Stress Appraisal Measure (Peacock & Wong, 1989); (2) Acculturative Strategy Scale (Chan, 2002); (3) Personal Meaning Profile (Lin, 2001); (4) Chinese Affect Scale (Hamid & Cheng, 1996); (5) and other two self-developed scales to measure acculturative stresssor and meaning-focused coping. The results of path analysis demostrated that acculturative stressors contributed to positive and negative affect through both direct and indirect pathways. Specifically, acculturative stressor is found to have a negative effect on positive affect and a positive effect on negative affcet. These effects were mediated by threat appraisal, meaning-focused coping, meaning of life, and acculturative strategy of marginalization. The theorectical contributions for resilience research in acculturation and practical implications for resilience-based and meaning-oriented intervention for students from mainland China in HK were discussed.