Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation towards Perceived Stress among International Students of a Public University in Sabah: An Exploration Study for Social Sustainability

Abstract

When adolescents go overseas to study, they have to face the challenge of adapting to local cultures, homesickness, and dealing with the stress. This study aimed to investigate the socio-cultural adaptation, homesickness, and perceived stress among international students in relation to social sustainability in a public university in Sabah, Malaysia. This research also related how international students manage both positive and negative impacts on their social life in university. The study included all international students in that university except Bruneian and Indonesian students. The sample group comprised 100 male and 100 female students. This study used four questionnaires: (i) Perceived Stress Scale, (ii) Homesickness Scale, (iii) Socio-cultural Adaptation Scale, and (iv) Revised Sociocultural Adaptation Scale. The results indicated that the socio-cultural adaptation and perceived stress levels were significantly correlated, r (198) = 0.354, p < 0.05. The level of homesickness and perceived stress were also significantly correlated, r (198) = 0.314, p < 0.05. The outcome of this study can help overseas students lead better lives abroad, while the university can arrange relevant activities to help them better adapt to local cultures and perceive less stress. The present study underlined the importance of increasing socio-cultural adaptation and social sustainability and decreasing homesickness among international students studying at the public university in Sabah.

1. Introduction

Socio-cultural adaptation is regarded as an important psychological change in acculturation studies. It represents the well-being and happiness of people whose lives are influenced by their characteristics and the people around them. Furthermore, homesickness affects people of all ages who are away from home for an extended period of time, and it may lead to strong feelings of sadness and a desire to leave their current location. On the other hand, stress can be seen as a situation in which an individual’s demand exceeds their capacity to cope. By considering what people require from the places they live and work, social sustainability is a process for building long-term successful places that foster resilience. In this study, social sustainability depends on how the student can adapt to the new environment and how they can cope with their new change of environment. It will give the student stronger feelings to deal with their homesickness, social-cultural adaption, and perceived stress.

This study hypothesized a significant relationship between Homesickness and Perceived Stress; Socio-Cultural Adaptation and Perceived Stress; and Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation. Finally, there are significant differences between the length of stay with Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress. This study was to measure the level of homesickness, socio-cultural adaptation and perceived stress for Social Sustainability. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between Homesickness and Socio-cultural Adaptation; Homesickness and Perceived Stress; and Socio-cultural Adaptation and Perceived Stress among international students of a public university in Sabah for Social Sustainability. Lastly, the study was to figure out the differences between the length of stay in Homesickness, Socio-Cultural adaptation, and Perceived Stress.

2. Literature Review

Nowadays, the issue of the level of perceived stress has been concerned by more and more people. The issue of perceived stress does not only happen among the working population but also among university students. As [1] stated, a dramatically increased suicide rate among Hong Kong students raised alarm bells for the public in 2015/2016. One of the major causes of these suicide events is assumed to be high levels of stress among Hong Kong students. According to [2], while it is a wonderful opportunity to have a chance to study in a new country, international students still have to face difficulties of various dimensions to adapt to countries. This is because they have to not only understand how the educational system works in the new country but also the new culture and language as well. All these difficulties could contribute significantly to their perceived stress. Knowing how stress develops is essential for us to minimize stress. Furthermore, a study conducted by [3] found that, as part of the transition and outcomes, students undergoing acculturation transition may face acculturative stress. Homesickness, on the other hand, would also have a major impact on international students’ psychological well-being, especially in academic performance, eating and sleeping problems, and low energy and headache; this was also associated with cultural stress and depression among international students [4]. The study about international students from the Mainland of China reported 135 mainland Chinese students with 32% of prevalence of depression symptoms by Wei et al. [1].

International students often suffer from homesickness. It now becomes prevalent for students to miss their home when entering a new university, especially international students. Also, homesickness has some significant negative influence on students’ academic performance, living quality, and psychological well-being. These factors can make a huge contribution to students’ level of Perceived Stress [4]. At the same time, social isolation tends to occur among international students. It may be difficult for international students to comprehend the style of communication in host countries because of cultural differences. Many students stated that they are passive in their group assignments or other activities [5]. According to [6], new students, especially international students, are more likely to isolate themselves from other people in the host country because of missed interaction and misunderstanding of the host culture. Their study explained that social isolation showed a significant negative correlation with the university learning experience (−0.50). This indicates that social isolation would harm students’ life in a foreign country. A study which conducted in UTM (University Technology Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia) stressed that the majority of international students face the challenge of the social categories: “recreational problems” and “interested in entertaining” (83%), “willing to improve my thoughts” and “interested in more discussion” (73%) [7]. These issues can be the source that impacts their mental health negatively. Hence, this social isolation may trigger the psychological isolation that causes the difficulties of functioning in this socio-cultural environment, and this isolation would eventually become depression and cause distress to their lives in a foreign country [6]. Nevertheless, the heavy feeling of homesickness among them is also one of the significant difficulties, in addition to the socio-cultural problems among international students. It is probably the first time, after all, for students to fly alone to another foreign country. The sense of homesickness due to parental separation will be weighty. It is not surprise that 30% of students often experience homesickness [4]. This issue might be more serious among the new international students. It was reported that the students who experience homesickness could achieve three-fourths, and it could strike students during their first week in a foreign country [8]. Students facing homesickness would have less attention to concentrate on their studies, and their home and family members would be missed [9].

Socio-cultural adaptation is another issue of great concern. It contains four aspects of problems, i.e., language adaptation, cultural adaptation, interpersonal adaptation, and social adaptation. Socio-culture refers to a specific society and its culture. Each country has its own culture and different social norms. Western culture, for instance, is individualistic, whereas Eastern culture is collectivistic. Acculturation is the term sometimes used when the adaptation of socio-culture is examined. It can be defined as the gradual adoption by individuals or groups of different cultures of the elements of foreign culture, such as their ideas, words, values, behavior, etc. [10]. Language adaptation is the first problem that students will meet once they arrive in the host country. Therefore, language difficulties are the most significant problem among international students [11]. It indicates that language will be the most common problem among international students, particularly Asian students. Language issues and problems among international students in foreign countries have become more relevant, especially while English is now highly needed [12]. The difficulties and challenges of social, academic, cultural shock, and homesickness, on the other hand, are the roots of language problems, especially in speaking and writing [12]. To go further, English is not the only official language in Malaysia. It leads to further language comprehension problems. The students’ common problem is that they have a problem understanding the heavy Malay accent in English when they take a class [7]. After that, students will need to adapt to the host country’s culture and values. The cultural value is special and unique. It varies between different countries. It could be expressed in multiple ways, such as food, cultural value, and even religion. The need for cross-cultural adaptation has become necessary with the rise of international students in Malaysia, and it is the challenge of learners to change their cultural values. Refs [13,14] emphasized that some evidence has shown that people from various cultural backgrounds are responsible for the conflict of misperceptions and misattribution. It shows that the students studying abroad should take into account the attitude and values of cultural conflict in a foreign country, and students are expected to have the ability to blend into the local culture and establish good contact with the people in the host country. The intercultural conflict will also cause emotional and psychological health problems that could impact international students’ lives [14]. Another thing is that students often have difficulties adapting to the new community, such as locating a place and using transport. When students arrive abroad, they are worried about accommodation and food, whereas some students felt insufficient, insecure, unpleasant, and inconvenient [5]. Sustainability and cultural adaptation are mostly concerned with human systems and social organizations, which is why terms like “sustainable society” are often used in current research; the social context of sustainability and the position of culture remain the most explained. Although substantial variations in social cultural traits exist among members of the same group, new “real” world challenges and global values such as sustainability and resilience are simultaneously contributing to the notion of society.

The length of stay is also a significant factor to influence international students. Longitudinal approaches will provide a more in-depth explanation of stress, adaptation, and homesickness as individuals adjust to their new environment. For instance, in a sample of college students, [15] found that homesickness declined from the first week to the sixth week of the semester. In addition, in a longitudinal study of children at a two-week overnight summer camp, 95% felt homesick for at least one day of their stay. Those who felt intensely homesick at the start of the camp were more likely to have increasing levels of homesickness [16]. According to [17], even when adjusting for negative emotional experience and previous transition, the freshman who indicated higher homesickness levels showed worse overall adjustment to college. Homesickness was correlated with worse social performance, but these social problems were limited to interactions with others in the college environment.

Since it is sporadic to see a study or analysis on this topic in Kota Kinabalu, then this research can enable the educational institutions to learn more about these international students in Kota Kinabalu as well as understand the comprehensive problem among international students so that they can have a smooth life in this country. At the same time, it will help international students to adapt better to their host country’s language, cultures, and values. This definitely will attract more international students to further their studies in Kota Kinabalu.

3. Research Framework

In this research, Socio-Cultural Adaptation and Homesickness related to Perceived Stress, while homesickness had a positive impact. Homesickness is negatively associated with Socio-Cultural Adaptation. This shows that the more students adapt to their environment, the less they will miss home. Length of stay also will affects the socio-cultural adaptation, homesickness and perceived stress (see Figure 1).

4. Materials and Methods

The study used a quantitative design, which is a survey using a questionnaire. There are three parts to the questionnaire in this study. The international students in Sabah public university are the research population. The sample is from the Sabah public university undergraduate students. Overall, there are 541 international undergraduate students from abroad. However, Brunei and Indonesia have been removed from the study since Bruneian and Indonesian speak almost the same as the Malay language, although there are small differences between Malay and Indonesian. There are 85 Bruneian students, and 40 Indonesian students. The total sample population comprises 421 students. For this research, the sample size was measured with 95 percent certainty, which required 202 respondents. Firstly, questionnaires with questions of homesickness, socio-cultural adaptation, and perceived stress were prepared for students. After that, the questionnaires were typed into a Google Form. WeChat and WhatsApp were used as social media to look for respondents who were international students in a public university in Sabah. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is impracticable to ask international students to fill out questionnaires face to face. Therefore, all data were collected online.

4.1. Instruments

4.1.1. Demographic Details

Information concerning students’ demographic characteristics consisting of questions regarding age, gender, citizenship, education, and year of study was obtained. Three psychological instruments (Homesickness, Socio-Cultural adaptation, and Perceived stress) were used via Google Forms.

4.1.2. Measurement of Homesickness

The measurement of Homesickness retrieved from [18] uses five-point Likert scales and consists of five clusters: Missing family, Loneliness, Missing friends, Adjustment Difficulties, and Ruminations about home. Each cluster contains five questions. The questions are direct and straightforward, meaning they can easily be understood. On the other hand, the instrument showed high reliability, with the alpha value in a range of 0.80 to 0.90, the total instrument achieved a = 0.94.

4.1.3. Measurement of Socio-Cultural Adaptation

The measurement of Socio-Cultural Adaptation was modified from the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS) from [19] and SCAS-R [20]. All the items showed high reliability. At the beginning of the measurement selection, the SCAS was selected with the items alpha value above 0.70, but the sub-scales were not shown in the content. Then the socio-cultural adaptation SCAS-R by [20] was selected. The SCAS-R contains overall 20 items, with alpha values in a range of 0.66 to 0.96. However, the language proficiency scale in this test only consists of two items. Therefore, we re-ranged the items and modified them according to the meaning of the items. Overall, they were modified into four subscales: language adaptation, cultural adaptation, interpersonal adaptation, and social adaptation from these two measurements (overall, 26 items). Language adaptation was emphasized by how much they could adapt to the local language; Cultural Adaptation addressed the issue of understanding the local culture and behavior; Interpersonal Adaptation demonstrated the ability that individuals could use the local transportation, living independently; and Social Adaptation aimed to the social interaction with others.

4.1.4. Measurement of Perceived Stress

The measurement of Perceived Stress was taken from [21], which was used to evaluate the individuals’ stress based on their perspectives. Uncontrollable and beyond their capacity, there are also some items for knowing their recent level of stress. The test requires the respondents to be junior high school and above; our respondents are all undergraduate students. The instrument also requests students answer questions based on their condition last month. Additionally, there are four items in the instrument that are reverse value (4, 5, 7, and 8)

5. Results

5.1. Preliminary Data

According to

Table 1. The length of stay, percentage of gender, and the nationalities among international students.

Item	Description	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Year	1	68	34.0	34.0	32.0
	2	48	24.0	24.0	56.0
	3 and above	84	42.0	42.0	100.0
	Total	200	100.0	100.0
Gender	Male	100	50.0	50.0	50.0
	Female	100	50.0	50.0	100.00
	Total	200	100.0	100.0
Nationalities	China	180	90.0	90.0	90.0
	Timor-Leste	12	6.0	6.0	96.0
	Others	8	4.0	4.0	100.0
	Total	200	100.0	100.0

, international students who stay three years and above are dominant in this research, while year one takes 34% and year two takes 24%. As for gender, the males take 50%, and the females take 50%. Lastly, most international students who participated in the study are Chinese students, i.e., 180 students, and take 90%. There are 12 students from Timor-Leste and 8 students from other countries, such as Japan, Korea, Bangladesh, etc.

5.2. Descriptive Analysis

5.2.1. The Descriptive Analysis of Homesickness

As shown in

Table 2. The Mean of Homesickness Subscales among Length of Study.

Year		MF	LO	MFR	AD	RH
1	Mean	9.8542	9.7917	9.9583	13.7708	13.4167
	N	68	68	68	68	68
	Std. Deviation	5.31953	4.91614	4.02629	3.41610	3.63103
2	Mean	7.6579	7.6579	7.9737	13.4474	13.6579
	N	48	48	48	48	48
	Std. Deviation	3.43493	3.13029	3.25897	3.83932	3.70738
3 and above	Mean	9.8594	10.0625	9.8438	14.0313	13.9375
	N	84	84	84	84	84
	Std. Deviation	5.03911	4.90181	4.46225	3.53652	4.11299
Total	Mean	9.3000	9.3667	9.4067	13.8000	13.7000
	N	200	200	200	200	200
	Std. Deviation	4.84906	4.60728	4.10777	3.56154	3.84385

, items AD (Adjustment Difficulties) and RH (Ruminations about Home) have considerably higher values in the mean of Homesickness, which are 13.80 and 13.70. In contrast, the other three items show a similar mean of homesickness. This means that item LO (Loneliness) from year one to year three above shows the greatest difference, i.e., from 7.66 to 10.06.

5.2.2. The Descriptive Analysis of Socio-Cultural Adaptation

According to

Table 3. The Mean of Socio-Cultural Subscale among Length of Study.

Year		LA	CA	IA	SI
1	Mean	17.0417	29.3125	25.2917	15.9792
	N	68	68	68	68
	Std. Deviation	4.21728	5.91844	7.04683	5.08016
2	Mean	18.4474	31.6316	27.6316	17.3684
	N	48	48	48	48
	Std. Deviation	3.78973	5.44963	8.34208	4.42610
3 and above	Mean	18.8281	31.0625	26.7969	16.1875
	N	84	84	84	84
	Std. Deviation	2.71126	4.43247	6.25688	5.00119
Total	Mean	18.1600	30.6467	26.5267	16.4200
	N	200	200	200	200
	Std. Deviation	3.59171	5.25604	7.09447	4.88838

, the total mean of item Social Interaction is 16.42, which is the lowest among all items. The range for this item is from 15.98 to 17.37 only. Secondly, the total mean of item Cultural Adaptation is 30.65, which is the highest. The mean from year one to year three is in the range of 29.31 to 31.63. Thirdly, the difference between the total means of Language Adaptation and Interpersonal Adaptation is big; one is 18.16, and the other is 26.53.

5.2.3. The Descriptive Analysis of Perceived Stress

According to

Table 4. The Mean of Perceived Stress among Length of Study.

Year	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
1	37.2083	68	6.63632
2	36.7632	48	7.21273
3 and above	36.5156	84	7.01471
Total	36.8000	200	6.90686

, the year one international students show the highest mean of Perceived Stress, i.e., 37.21. The other two groups have almost the same means: one is 36.76, and the other is 36.52. Although year one students have the highest mean, the difference of means between year one and the others is slight.

5.3. Inferential Analysis

5.3.1. Differences of Length of Study in Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress

Table 5. The Descriptive of Homesickness.

Year	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error
1	68	56.7917	15.61363	2.25363
2	48	50.3947	11.22386	1.82075
3 and above	84	57.7344	15.42132	1.92767
Total	200	55.5733	14.76680	1.20570

shows that the year two international students have the lowest mean of Homesickness, which is only 50.39. The other two groups share a similar mean, which is around 57.00. The overall mean of Homesickness among all students is 55.57. According to

Table 6. One-way ANOVA of Homesickness.

	Sum of Squares	DF	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	1389.213	2	694.607	3.283	0.040
Within Groups	31,101.480	197	211.575
Total	32,490.693	199

, we can conclude that there is a significant difference between the length of study in Homesickness, F (2197) = 0.285, p = 0.040. The null hypothesis is rejected.

Table 7. The Descriptive of Socio-Cultural Adaptation.

Year	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error
1	68	87.6250	16.14644	2.33054
2	48	95.0789	16.66747	2.70382
3 and above	84	92.8750	11.28210	1.41026
Total	200	91.7533	14.62504	1.19413

shows the means of the three groups, which are divided by years of stay. The overall mean of Socio-Cultural Adaptation among all 200 respondents is 91.75. The mean of year one students is 87.62, which is the lowest, while the other two are 95.08 and 92.88. There is not a big difference between the mean of year two students and year three and above students. According to

Table 8. One-way ANOVA of Socio-Cultural Adaptation.

	Sum of Squares	DF	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	1318.860	2	659.430	3.173	0.045
Within Groups	30,551.013	197	207.830
Total	31,869.873	199

, we can conclude that there is a significant difference between the length of stay in Socio-Cultural Adaptation, F (2197) = 3.173, p = 0.045. The null hypothesis is rejected.

Table 9. The Descriptive of Perceived Stress.

Year	N	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error
1	68	37.2083	6.63632	0.95787
2	48	36.7632	7.21273	1.17006
3 and above	84	36.5156	7.01471	0.87684
Total	200	36.8000	6.90686	0.56394

shows that the mean difference among the three groups is not significant. Year 1 students have the highest mean, i.e., 37.21, while the other two are above 36.50. It indicates that there is not a significant difference among all groups. We can also conclude from

Table 10. One-way ANOVA in Perceived Stress.

	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
Between Groups	13.231	2	6.615	0.137	0.872
Within Groups	7094.769	197	48.264
Total	7108.000	199

that there is no significant difference between the length of stay in Perceived Stress, F (2197) = 0.137, p = 0.872. The null hypothesis is not rejected.

5.3.2. The Relationship between Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress

Table 11. The Correlation between Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress.

	N	SCA	H	PS
H	Pearson Correlation	0.099
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.229
SCA	Pearson Correlation
	Sig. (2-tailed)
PS	Pearson Correlation	0.254 *	0.214 *
	Sig. (2-tailed)	0.002	0.009

* p < 0.05.

shows the overall relationship between Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress. There are a few things we can conclude from the table. Firstly, the correlation between H (Homesickness) with PS (Perceived Stress) is 0.214, p < 0.05, which means the null hypothesis is rejected as well, and there is also a significant relationship between Homesickness and Perceived Stress. Secondly, the correlation between SCA (Socio-Cultural Adaptation) and PS (Perceived Stress) is 0.254, p < 0.05, which means the null hypothesis is rejected, and there is a significant relationship between Socio-Cultural Adaptation and Perceived Stress. Finally, the correlation between H (Homesickness) and SCA (Socio-Cultural Adaptation) is 0.099, p > 0.05, which means the null hypothesis is not rejected. Consequently, there is no significant relationship between Homesickness with Socio-Cultural Adaptation.

6. Discussion

6.1. The Descriptive of Homesickness

Based on the result of Homesickness, items AD (Adjustment Difficulties) and RH (Rumination about Home) show a significantly higher total mean of Homesickness. It indicates that international students in a public university in Sabah suffer from homesickness mostly because they have some difficulties adjusting themselves and they think here, Malaysia, is not a better place than their homeland so they might regret their decisions and keep thinking about the past happy time in their homeland. As we discussed earlier, international students face some adjustment problems when they go abroad, especially the language adaptation. Moreover, [22] supported that English skill may be a major factor affecting international students’ cultural stress and homesickness. Obviously, homesickness is associated with socio-cultural adaptation. While objective social sustainability may forecast homesickness, attitudes and expectations of these conditions may be more specifically linked to homesickness. From the result of Socio-Cultural Adaptation, we know that language adaptation is one of the worst adaptations since the mean value is very low. According to [23], international students confront higher homesickness when they experience language and cultural adjustment difficulties. So, we can conclude that since international students cannot adapt to the local language quickly and smoothly, they will suffer more severe homesickness and have a higher total mean of adjustment difficulties. It will affect their social sustainability in the new country because of the barrier of language to communicating among their friends in the university.

As for the ruminations about home, according to [24], people who have a depressed emotional experience, their friends, relatives, which could trigger a sense of depression, and isolation, would be lost. The friends and relatives of international students in their homeland trigger them about their old place, then they have a depressed emotion, which makes them miss their home more frequently. Furthermore, [25] emphasized that homesickness would cause a lot of negative consequences: low satisfaction with the host environment, loneliness, sadness, and adjustment issues. Once students suffer from homesickness, they will be unsatisfied with the new environment, and unable to adjust themselves. A socially sustainable society is one in which everyone is treated equally and everyone lives happily. Indeed no one should be left behind. Furthermore, everybody is allowed to live a decent life in liberty. There should no barriers along the way, such as education, health, power, or politics. That means that all international students should be able to live comfortably and happily in Malaysia.

6.2. The Descriptive of Socio-Cultural Adaptation

Socio-Cultural Adaptation shows that the total mean of item LA (Language Adaptation) and SI (Social Interaction) is significantly lower than the other subscales. It first indicates that international students in a public university in Sabah cannot learn and understand the local language quickly because they cannot express exactly what they want. English is a globally used language, and it is now highly needed nowadays [12]. So, most of the international students are able to speak English and their own local language only. However, English is not the only official language in Malaysia. According to the research conducted by [7], the students’ common problem is that they have a problem understanding the heavy Malay accent in English when they take a class. Furthermore, the inability to adapt to a language often contributes negatively to the social relationships with others, especially their local classmates. Students who study in foreign countries with this kind of situation face the problems of anxiety and social relationship distress [26]. It is not surprising that international students additionally have a low total mean of Social Interaction when they have a low total mean of Language Adaptation. This leads to international students’ general well-being and absence of stress while studying in Malaysia. Socio-cultural adaptation needs to be given attention and importance to enhance their social sustainability in the aspect of cultural adaptation.

6.3. The Descriptive of Perceived Stress

The result of Perceived Stress shows no significant difference between the length of stay. The year one students show only a slightly higher total mean of Perceived Stress, which is 37.21. However, the total mean of Perceived Stress is 36.80, out of 50.00. It is a considerably high value, and it also indicates that almost all international students in a public university in Sabah perceive a high level of stress. According to [27], new students will have a lot of pressure because they have to adjust themselves to the university, overcome homesickness, and take care of themselves. It becomes even more challenging for international students to face the above difficulties and adapt to the new environment’s cultural and value differences. However, it was discovered that social reinforcement played a minor to moderate role in reducing the effect of stress on these students. Many previous studies show that failure to reach socio-cultural adjustment will cause a high-stress level [11,23]. There is no wonder the total mean of Perceived Stress is high. On the other hand, we can also find some evidence to support why the year one students show a slightly higher total mean of Perceived Stress than the other two groups. As we can see from the discussion above, year one students show the worst result for Socio-Cultural Adaptation and a high risk of Homesickness. By combining these two results, we can understand why they have a higher level of Perceived Stress. Feelings of stress, in particular, seem to be burdensome in new study environments for international students. As a result, identifying causes and having a more intense experience of stress are both essential for social sustainability in this area. This is because the psychological aspects of health and wellness are closely related to the individual determinants of stress levels. However, it could be seen that resilience towards new environments and value differences are critical for reducing perceived stress levels and ensuring social sustainability.

6.4. The Difference of Length of Study in Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress

After analyzing all the data to measure the differences in length of study in Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress, we can summarize the results as (a) There is a significant difference between the length of study in Homesickness; (b) There is a significant difference between the length of stay in Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and (c) There is no significant difference between the lengths of stay in Perceived Stress. Regarding the Socio-Cultural Adaptation, year one students have the lowest total mean among the three groups, which generally means the year one students are the worst adaptable group. Ref. [28] explained that new students confront the stress and conflict of cultural contracts with their own culture. From different perspectives, these cultural contrasts carry many challenges. It would always show that when individuals are exposed to a new culture confusion and anxiety occur due to culture and environmental contrast [29,30,31,32,33]. The confusion and anxiety from the new culture and environment may be why year one students are the worst adaptable group. According to [29], individuals who confront significant adjustment issues, such as anxiety, hopelessness, and confusion, have significantly affected lives. After the period’s frustration, individuals could gradually adapt to the condition by understanding the local value and culture, or attending activities. Therefore, it is logical that an individual’s Socio-Cultural Adaptation would be improved based on the timeline change. This could also help us understand why year one students cannot adapt well while the other groups can adapt well. As for Homesickness, the result shows that year two students have the lowest total mean of Homesickness, which means they relatively are the least homesick in their life in Sabah public university. Therefore, year one and year three and above students have the most homesickness. According to the discussion before about Homesickness, we can understand that homesickness and socio-cultural adaptation are related to each other to a certain extent. If a student cannot adapt well to the local language and culture, he will have a bigger chance of suffering from homesickness. The result of Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation is related as well, since year one and year three and above students have a high total mean of Homesickness, while they have a low total mean of Socio-Cultural Adaptation [32].

6.5. The Relationship between Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress

Based on the results shown above, the relationship between Homesickness with Perceived Stress and Socio-Cultural Adaptation with Perceived Stress is significant. We have already known that if someone has a better ability to adapt to a new environment, the less stress he will perceive, and in the meantime, if someone can handle his homesickness better, he will feel less stress in his daily life. We can prove it by analyzing the result; the year two students have the lowest mean of Homesickness, which means they are the least influenced by homesickness. At the same time, the year two students have the highest mean of Socio-Cultural Adaptation, which means they can better adapt to the new environment. Ref. [22] stressed that students who experience homesickness pay less attention to their studies, have low satisfaction with the environment and feel sad and down, show symptoms of anxiety, have academic issues, and their eating and sleeping patterns could be influenced. [3] also argued that all of the international students’ challenges would be a significant source of distress, especially during the transition stage.

7. Conclusions

By conducting this study and analyzing the data collected, many problems and potential problems are found. Homesickness, Socio-Cultural Adaptation, and Perceived Stress have been measured by using a questionnaire. The term homesickness is explained as the common experience of distress among individuals leaving their family, home, and residing in an unfamiliar environment. Because of the strong longing feeling, individuals will be in a prolonged mood of depression, which is defined as homesickness. Socio-cultural adaptation is interpreted as the ability to “fit in” the behavior required in a certain given environment, contributing to social interaction, language ability, and understanding of cultural values. Several studies also supported that language skills and broader communication play an essential role in socio-cultural adaptation. The individual who has an issue in the language would have a significant issue in their aspects because language is the key to communication. Lastly, perceived stress is described as the condition in which the demand of individuals exceeds their ability to manage.

Through the results, we can see that the overall total mean of Homesickness is 55.57/100, considered as moderate. It can be interpreted that international students here have some issues regarding homesickness but not severe. However, the sub-scales adjustment difficulties and ruminations about home have a high total mean. It may be influenced by the Socio-Cultural Adaptation, which is proved to relate to homesickness. The overall total mean of Socio-Cultural Adaptation is high, which is 91.75/130. It could be explained that the respondents have a considerably high level of adaptation about Malaysia. Among the sub-scales, language adaptation and social interaction have a relatively low total mean, which indicates that students from overseas cannot learn and understand the local language quickly and therefore cannot build and maintain a good relationship with local people. The overall total mean of Perceived Stress is 36.8/50. It can be considered a high value to conclude that international students at public university in Sabah suffer from lots of stress in their daily lives. The stress comes from both bad sociocultural adaptation and moderate homesickness since it is proved by the results that there are significant relationships between Perceived Stress and Homesickness and between Perceived Stress and Socio-Cultural Adaptation.

In this study, Socio-Cultural Adaptation had a negative impact on Perceived Stress, while Homesickness positively contributed to it. Socio-Cultural Adaptation is negatively correlated with Homesickness. This shows that the better the students are able to adapt to the environment, the lower the level of homesickness they experience. The reason why there is no significant difference between the lengths of study in Perceived Stress is worth investigating. This study found that there is a significant relationship between Homesickness and Perceived Stress, and between Socio-Cultural Adaptation and Perceived Stress, and at the same time it has been proved that there is a significant difference between the length of stay in Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation, so the factors that led to the conclusion that there is no significant difference between the length of study in Perceived Stress are interesting.