Social Support Benefits Psychological Adjustment of International Students: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis

A growing body of literature is exploring the link between social support and international students’ psychological adjustment, but so far, there has been no systematic assessment of the overall relationship. Our meta-analysis of 65 studies fills this gap and assesses (1) the magnitude of the overall association between social support and international students’ psychological adjustment, (2) how different types and sources of social support relate to psychological adjustment, and (3) whether the relationship between social support and psychological adjustment holds across different operationalizations of psychological adjustment. We find a positive but small overall association (r = .24, 95% (CI) [.19, .28]) between social support and international students’ psychological adjustment. Types and sources of social support matter as well: Subjective social support relates more strongly to psychological adjustment than objective social support, and the data show that social support from unspecified sources (i.e., it was unclear whether it was conationals or host nationals) was more related to psychological adjustment than other sources. We find a positive association between social support and negative psychological adjustment, but no relationship between social support and positive psychological adjustment. Social support, irrespective of type and source, has a uniform positive effect on positive psychological adjustment. We outline areas for further investigation and policy advice based on the findings of the meta-analysis.