Initial Communication with and Attitudes toward International Students: Testing the Mediating Effects of Friendship Formation Variables

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 67th annual convention of the International Communication Association, which was held at San Diego in May 2017.

Abstract

From the theoretical perspectives of intergroup contact, predicted outcome value (POV), and similarity-attraction, this study examined U.S. host nationals’ (N = 342) communicative behaviours in a recent initial encounter with an international student and attitudes toward the student’s cultural group as a whole. Testing of two models indicated the significant sequential mediator effects of perceived similarity-social attraction and POV-social attraction between communication variables (e.g. amount of communication exchange in both models, self-disclosure in model 1, and information seeking in model 2), and intergroup attitudes (e.g. behavioural attitudes). Findings in general demonstrated that contact effects in the intercultural context varied according to specific measures of communication, the mediating mechanisms, and intergroup attitudes.

Keywords:

• Intercultural friendship
• intergroup contact theory
• similarity
• predicted outcome value
• social attraction

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 67th annual convention of the International Communication Association, which was held at San Diego in May 2017.