(PS6-82) The Role of Cultural Dissonance in Psychological Well-being Among International Students: An Intensive Longitudinal Study

International students tend to show a decline in psychological well-being after they arrive in the new country and start navigating the unfamiliar cultural norms. The phenomenon “cultural dissonance” occurs when these students experience a sense of discord and perplexity because the new cultural context differs from their own. To reduce the discomfort caused by cultural dissonance, many of them develop an excessive need for cognitive closure, characterized by a strong desire to eschew ambiguities and reestablish a structured mode of life, which often backfires and causes more distress that worsens their psychological well-being. 

Our study aims to test a within-person pathway between cultural dissonance (CD) and psychological well-being (PW) among international students, mediated by the need for closure (NFC). We also aim to test the moderating effects of a few culturally-relevant cognitive traits, including psychological flexibility, self-construal, and tolerance of deviance. We have launched a pilot study in March 2025, using a 30-day ecological momentary assessment to capture these between-person and within-person changes in vivo. The participants are international students residing in the greater Cambridge area, who self-report to have experienced cultural dissonance in the past 30 days. 

We hypothesize that for a given participant, an increase in their CD will lead to an increase in their NFC, and therefore lead to a decrease in their PW. We will test this mediating relationship with a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) that regresses PW on NFC, and NFC on CD. We also hypothesize that higher psychological flexibility, a more independent self-construal, and higher tolerance of deviance will reduce the effect size of CD on PW. We will test this moderating relationship by incorporating interaction into the RI-CLPM model.

The findings from our study may well provide new insight about how the dynamic acculturation process gives rise to psychopathology through various cognitive pathways within a vulnerable population like international students. The mediating and moderating factors between cultural dissonance and psychopathology may guide future intervention to meet international students where they are, by addressing the culturally-relevant cognitions that put them at risk.