Cross Cultural Journey
Evaluations
Project Statistics:
Total 33 participants, from 10+ nationalities!
Scales:
We used mainly two scales in our studies, measuring cultural competence and cross-cultural friendship intimacy.
Cultural Competence
Cultural competence reflects our goals to develop cultural competence, broaden global insight, and enhance cross-cultural communication.
Figure above compiles studies investigating the reliability of the CQS cross-culturally up to 2015, confirming the validity and reliability of the CQS cross-culturally among diverse populations (Bücker et al., 2015).
The original CQS consists of 4 factors and 20 items. However, the 4-factor structure does not retain validity across cultures. Divergent validity between the 4 factors was not observed in countries such as China, the Netherlands, or Korea (Bücker et al., 2015; Lee & Hong, 2021). Consequently, a 2-factor 12-item version of the CQS, which retains divergent validity cross-culturally, was selected for use.
The 2 factors are Internalized Cultural Knowledge (ICK) and Effective Cultural Flexibility (ECF), which measure the level of cross-cultural knowledge and the level of appropriate cross-cultural behavior respectively. ICK aligns with our goal to broaden global insight, while ECF relates to facilitating cross-cultural communication.
Factor Structure of CQS
As the structure shows, there are two sub-constructs to CQS: Internalized Cultural Knowledge and Effective Cultural Flexibility. Both are on 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree)
Internalized Cultural Knowledge
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I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with people with different cultural backgrounds.
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I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural interactions.
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I know the legal and economic systems of other cultures.
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I know the rules (e.g. vocabulary, grammar) of other languages.
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I know the cultural values and religious beliefs of other cultures.
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I know the marriage systems of other cultures.
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I know the arts and crafts of other cultures.
Effective Cultural Flexibility
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I am sure I can deal with the stresses of adjusting to a culture that is new to me.
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I use pause and silence differently to suit different cross-cultural situations.
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I vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural situation requires it.
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I change my nonverbal behavior when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.
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I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me.
Cross-cultural Friendship Intimacy
Friendship intimacy reflects our goals to build bridges between local/international students. Research on intercultural friendships uses various scales. Our program employs an adapted version of the Friendship Scale by Hawthorne (2006), with Cronbach 0.81.
The scales are as below: (5-point Likert Scale, from “Not at All” to “Almost Always”).
During the past four weeks:
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It has been easy to relate to (local/non-local students)
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I feel isolated from (local/non-local students)
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I had (local/non-local students) to share my feelings with
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I found it easy to get in touch with (local/non-local students) when I needed to
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When with (local/non-local students), I feel separated from them
Data Analysis
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CQS: Internalized Cultural Intelligence + Effective Behavioral Flexibility
To analyze Cultural Intelligence, We conducted a repeated-measures ANOVA to examine the effect of Cross Cultural Journey on Cultural Intelligence Scale between pre-test and post-test. The analysis revealed a significant effect of the session on the Cultural Intelligence Scale (F(1, 23) = 8.72, p = 0.007, η^2 = 0.078).
After adding a between-subject factor of origin (local/non-local) and gender, the analysis revealed a significant main effect and no interaction, suggesting the effect exists regardless of participants’ origin and gender.
Descriptives Table for CQS Scales
Histogram of simple descriptives
Intercultural Friendship Intimacy
To analyze Intercultural Friendship, We conducted a repeated-measures ANOVA to examine the effect of Cross Cultural Journey on Intercultural Friendship Intimacy Scale between pre-test and post-test. The analysis revealed a significant effect of the session on Cultural Intelligence Scale (F(1, 23) = 27.3, p < 0.001, η^2 = 0.293).
After adding a between-subject factor of origin (local/non-local), the analysis revealed a significant main effect and no interaction, suggesting the effect exists regardless of participants’ origin. However, when we add a between-subject factor of gender, there is interaction (F(1, 22) = 4.47, p = 0.046, η^2 = 0.046).
To further explore the interaction effect, post hoc tests were conducted using post hoc test with Bonferroni correction. The post hoc analysis revealed that the effect of Intercultural Friendship Intimacy was significant for females (p < 0.001) but not for male (p = 0.876).
One possible explanation for the observed interaction effect is the unequal distribution of gender in our sample, with a higher proportion of females than males. This gender imbalance may have contributed to the observed interaction, as gender could potentially influence the response to the within-subject factor. However, it is important to note that further research is needed to explore and validate this explanation.