Title: The roles of mobile social supports as a multi-level moderator in the acculturation process among international students: testing moderated mediation and mediated moderation models

Authors: Wonjun Chung; Soobum Lee

Addresses: Department of Media Communications, University of Suwon, Social Science B.D. #411, Kyung-Gi-Go, Hwa-Sung-City 445-743, South Korea ' Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Incheon National University, Incheon, South Korea

Abstract: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of the social supports from mobile social network sites (SS-SNS) in coping with depression among international students. Using a total of 265 international students in the USA, this study revisited to test the unidimensional relationship among acculturative stressors, acculturative stress, and depression in an academic setting. This study further examined two hypothesised models: a) a moderated mediation model where acculturative stressors and the SS-SNS interact in moderating the level of depression mediated by stress; b) a mediated moderation model where the SS-SNS moderate the impact of acculturative stress initially mediated by stressors on depression. The findings supported the mediated moderation model rather than the moderated mediation model. It explains that SS-SNS does not offer an intervention impact between stressors and stress to reduce depression, but moderates only the effects of the extensive amount of acculturative stress on depression.

Keywords: social network sites; SNS; acculturative stressors; acculturative stress; depression; moderated mediation; mediated moderation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2022.125911

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2022 Vol.20 No.6, pp.759 - 782

Accepted: 16 Feb 2021
Published online: 04 Oct 2022 *

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