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International students’ social use of WeChat and sociocultural adjustment: co** self-efficacy as a longitudinal mediator

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Abstract

International students are featured by having to rebuild social relationships and cope with various sojourn-related challenges in the host society. Therefore, the social use of social media and co** self-efficacy can be constructs that are highly relevant to this population and may facilitate their sociocultural adjustment, but no prior study examines their relationships. The present study aimed to fill in the research gap by conducting a three-wave longitudinal study to investigate their reciprocal links, as well as the mediating role of co** self-efficacy, among international students in China. Results from cross-lagged panel analyses revealed the unidirectional links from prior social use of WeChat (i.e., a popular social media in China) to subsequent co** self-efficacy and from prior co** self-efficacy to subsequent sociocultural adjustment, as opposed to the bi-directional links. Furthermore, co** self-efficacy was found to longitudinally mediate the link from prior social use of WeChat to subsequent sociocultural adjustment.

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Data Availability

The dataset of the study can be available from the first author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The current study was funded by National Social Sciences Fund of China (Grant number: 19BSH116).

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  1. Northeast Normal University, 5268, Renmin Street, Changchun, China

    Chun Cao & Wangting Jia

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  1. Chun Cao
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Correspondence to Chun Cao.

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Cao, C., Jia, W. International students’ social use of WeChat and sociocultural adjustment: co** self-efficacy as a longitudinal mediator. Educ Inf Technol 29, 5189–5209 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12044-5

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