Perceived Threat and Discrimination as Moderators of Ethnic Identity Connection and Effectiveness of Intercultural Interaction of International Students in Russia

Abstract

Objective. The determination of the conditions under which the preservation of ethnic identity will contribute to the effectiveness of intercultural interaction of international students with host Russian population. Background. With the growth in both the number of foreign cultural students in the Russian Federation and the intolerant attitude of the host community towards migrants the need to search for psychological resources of foreign cultural students in order to reduce the stressful impact of the new cultural environment and to establish effective interaction with representatives of the host culture increases. Study design. The research is based on the author's model for assessing and predicting the effectiveness of intercultural interaction, integratively combining Anxiety/Uncertainty Management theory by W. Gudykunst, the theory of Intergroup threat by W. Stephan & C. Stephan and Uncertainty-Identity theory by M. Hogg. The contribution of ethnic identity to the effectiveness of intercultural interaction of international students in Russia was determined with the help of moderation analysis using PROCESS macro add in package for SPSS Statistics 21.0. Participants. International students studying at higher educational institutions in Moscow, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Ulan-Ude, 340 people (58,5% are women, the average age is 22,9 years). Measurements. Scales for determining ethnic identity, perceived threat and perceived discrimination, developed by J. Berry for the MIRIPS project adapted by N.M. Lebedeva and A.N. Tatarko and the scale of perceived effectiveness of communication across relationships and cultures by W. Gudykunst and T. Nishida, modified by O.E. Khukhlaev for international students' self-assessment of the effectiveness of interaction with Russian students. Results. The interaction effects of ethnic identity and self-assessment of intercultural communication effectiveness taking into account the moderating parameter (perceived threat and perceived discrimination) are revealed. Conclusions. Ethnic identity acts as a predictor of intercultural interaction effectiveness only in the conditions of perceiving the communication situation as either significantly threatening (high degree of perceived threat and medium degree of perceived discrimination), or as significantly discriminating (high degree of perceived discrimination and medium degree of perceived threat), or both significantly and threatening, and discriminating.