Examining the Impact of Team Identification and Leisure Participation on International Students’ Acculturation

Abstract

While participating in leisure activities received its notion to help international students’ adjustment process, research regarding the effect of sports spectatorship is lacking. The main purpose of this study is to fill in the gap of the effect of being fans of college sports by examining how international students can also benefit from being fans of college sports for their acculturation. The analysis with 94 international students revealed that their team identification and social activity participation had a significant statistical causal relationship towards acculturation. The study’s implications included utilizing sports spectatorship as a future acculturation strategy for international students.