Articlehybrid2023

Who benefits from the international classroom? A longitudinal examination of multicultural personality development during one year of international higher education

Joep Hofhuis · Joran Jongerling · Jeroen Jansz

23 citations0/0 files storedHigher Education

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

International Student and Expatriate Challenges Higher Education Governance and Development Global Education and Multiculturalism

Abstract

Abstract Enhancing students’ intercultural competences through international higher education requires a thorough understanding of the way in which these competences develop over time, how they relate to outcomes, and which factors predict their growth. To answer these questions, a three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among a sample of first-year students in an international university program ( n = 425). Intercultural competences were operationalized through the five dimensions of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ): Cultural Empathy, Openmindedness, Flexibility, Social Initiative and Emotional Stability. We examined development of these traits across one year, as well as their relationship with stress, life satisfaction, and academic performance (GPA). Cultural background (local vs. international student) and prior international experience (yes/no) were included as predictors. Results show that MPQ scores at the beginning of the year negatively relate to change across semester 1, which in turn is negatively related to change across semester 2. These findings suggest the presence of ceiling effects in MPQ development. In semester 1, emotional stability acts as a buffer against stress. In semester 2, stress is lower among students with higher scores on cultural empathy, and lower scores on flexibility. Cultural empathy and social initiative relate positively to academic performance. No significant main effects were found for cultural background, or prior international experience. However, these predictors interact on openmindedness and social initiative: local students with no prior international experience show a significant increase in these dimensions across the first semester, whereas the others do not.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 23 citations exist upstream.

References

1983A Global Measure of Perceived Stress 1985The Satisfaction With Life Scale 1992An Introduction to the Five‐Factor Model and Its Applications 2016Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: The state of the art and future directions for psychological research 2020Internationalization in higher education: global trends and recommendations for its future 2000The multicultural personality questionnaire: a multidimensional instrument of multicultural effectiveness 2011Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity, academic and social integration 2012Culturally mixed groups on international campuses: an opportunity for inter-cultural learning

Cited by

2024Are some individuals more susceptible to intercultural education than others? Multicultural personality predicts the effects of an intercultural training on cultural intelligence 2025The influence of language proficiency, acculturation stress, and institutional support in enhancing personal development of international students in China 2024Developing cross-cultural competence in entrepreneurship education: What is the role of the university

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.