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I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world - Socrates, 469-399 BC. When students who participate in education abroad programs are first exposed to a foreign culture they undergo several psychological, behavioral, and cognitive adjustments. Upon arrival in the host country, they are confronted with a variety of problems as they adjust to the new surroundings. These could range from language barriers and homesickness, to depression and an inability to participate in social interactions. Research on sociocultural adaptation and adjustment has produced several theories, but for the purpose of this study, the sociocultural adaptation theory, as it has been proposed by Ward and Kennedy (1999), will be used. They, and others (Searle & Ward, 1990; Searle & Ward, 1999), attempted to address the issue of what actually constitutes a sojourner adaptation by developing the construct of sociocultural adaptation. They differentiated between the psychological adaptation, which addresses the emotional/affective domain and is associated with factors dealing with the mental health of the individuals, and the sociocultural adaptation, which addresses the behavioral domain and is associated with factors dealing with school, work, or family issues; these two adjustment outcomes, although closely related, represent conceptually and empirically distinct domains. Psychological adjustment precedes sociocultural adaptation. Ward (2001) emphasized that there is a learning-curve while sojourners adjust to their new culture and that “culture specific skills are required to negotiate the new cultural milieu” (p. 413). Skills are increased as sojourners spend more time in the host culture and, thus, cultural learning is increased. Gains in learning new skills allow for greater use of the skills applied in new situations. Cultural distance between the host and the home country and length of time spent abroad, have been suggested as important factors which determine how skillfully these sociocultural adjustments are made. In dissimilar cultures, the number and the intensity of the encounters will be higher, and the differences will be more pronounced than in similar cultures (Savicki, Adams, & Binder, 2008). It is commonly assumed, therefore, that different degrees of sociocultural adaptation will take place based on the time period spent abroad. The longer the sojourner stays abroad, the greater the contact with the local culture and the greater the possible gains in sociocultural adaptation.

Sociocultural Adaptation of U.S. Education Abroad Students in Greece: The Effects of Program Duration and Intervention