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The Impact Of Social Support On Satisfaction And Adjustment Of The International Scholars

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Social support is a general rubric that encompasses at least three distinct types of support: perceived support, enacted support and social integration. There are different measures for each of these types of support, and the types are only weakly related to each other (Barrera, 1986; Dunkel-Schetter & Bennett, 1990; Lakey & Drew, 1997). Furthermore, each type of social support displays its own unique pattern of correlations with other constructs and variables, indicating that each type is a distinct construct, i.e., the three types have surprisingly little in common (Barrera, 1986; Lakey & Drew, 1997). The purpose of my study is to explore the impact of perceived social support on satisfaction and adjustment of the international scholars and how social support help them to cope with the accultural stress. Coping theory as well as transformative learning theory will offer possible explanation of the adjustment of these visiting scholars. We will focus on the studies on perceived support in the literature. Perceived support (also known as functional support; Wills & Filer, 2001) is the subjective judgment that family and friends would provide quality assistance with future stressors. People with high perceived-support believe that they can count on their family and friends to provide quality assistance during times of trouble (Wan et al., 1992, Thoits, 1995). This assistance may include listening to the stressed person talk about troubles, expressing warmth and affection,

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