The purpose of my study was to test Searle and Ward's (1990, 1991) model of psychological and socio-cultural adaptation using structural equation modeling on international students at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and to further examine the role of interpersonal relationships on adjustment.

The psychological and socio-cultural adaptation model of sojourner adjustment has become dominant and well-tested in the cross-cultural transition literature. Recent research has shown that the type of friendships an individual builds abroad (co-national, host-national and local social ties) can impact psychological adjustment and socio-cultural adaptation. The socio-cognitive variable, need for cognitive closure (NCC), has also been investigated as a predictor for both social ties and psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. My study tested a model that included all of these predictors.

A sample of 141 individuals representing 40 different countries completed surveys, of which 69.9% were male, and 30.1% were female. Participants' average age was 22.35 years (SD = 3.64) with a range of 18 to 40. When non-significant paths were removed from the SEM analyses, significant paths included a negative relationship between co-national ties and psychological adjustment (PWB; β = −.18), a positive relationship between host national ties and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; β = .29), and a negative relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; β = −.18). There was a positive relationship between low cultural distance (CD) and psychological adjustment (β = .29) and between low cultural distance (CD) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; β = .34). Finally, there was a positive relationship between language proficiency (LANG) and sociocultural adjustment (SCAS; β = .30).

The resultant variables in my model accounted for approximately 10% of psychological adjustment and 30% of socio-cultural adjustment. Consistent with predictions, more host-national ties led to greater sociocultural adaptation, yet having more co-national ties resulted in poorer psychological adjustment. As expected, language proficiency led to better sociocultural adaptation, and high cultural distance had a negative impact on both psychological and sociocultural adaptation. These findings offer support for the utility of Ward and Searle's conceptualization of adaptation in a new, diverse set of international students.