A Study of Resiliency Characteristics in the Adjustment of International Graduate Students at American Universities

This research introduced the concept of resilience into the study of adjustment of international graduate students at U. S. universities. The purpose of this study was to explore relationships among resilience characteristics, background variables, and adjustment problem areas, and to gauge the effects of resilience and background variables on adjustment. The Organizational Development Resources' Personal Resilience Questionnaire and the Michigan International Student Problem Inventory were used, and 207 usable responses were gathered. Statistical analyses revealed that resilience characteristics were moderately associated with background variables, highly negatively correlated with adjustment problem areas, better correlated with adjustment problem areas than were background variables, and resilience had the greatest effect on adjustment.