Test of a Social Cognitive Model of Restorative Well-Being: Application to International Students

The social cognitive model of restorative well-being (Lent, 2004) focuses on the means by which people help to stabilize their emotional functioning after exposure to challenging life conditions. We extended this model to the study of how international students navigate psychological adjustment to life in the United States. In this application, we focused on the interplay of cognitive, behavioral, social, and trait mechanisms that may help to mitigate distress and promote well-being in the context of change and transition. Participants were 233 international students at U.S. colleges and universities who completed measures of acculturative stress, life satisfaction, social support, self-efficacy in coping with life changes, general self-efficacy, and acculturation- and enculturation-based coping behaviors. Findings indicated that the model provided good fit to the data. Coping efficacy was strongly predictive of lower levels of acculturative stress, which in turn predicted life satisfaction together with general self-efficacy. We consider implications of the findings for future research as well as for interventions designed to prevent psychological distress and to promote effective coping among international students and in a broad range of other stress and coping contexts, such as life role transitions.