Adaptation of Students from India and Arab Countries to the Educational Context of Institutions of Higher Education in Russia

Objectives. Identification and analysis of adaptation features, dominant coping strategies and components of the anticipatory competence among foreign students in connection with their cultural affiliation. Background. A contradiction between the amount of empirical data on adaptation and the lack of work aimed at studying the peculiarities of predicting difficult situations in the adaptation process and copying strategies among foreign students due to their cultural affiliation is becoming more and more clearly marked. Study design. The study was conducted using a socio-psychological survey. For data processing and analysis, descriptive statistics and Student t-test were used. Participants. Students from Arab countries (n = 64) and from India (n = 73) acted as respondents. Measurements. Technique «Revised Sociocultural Adaptation Scale» (SCAS-R) (J. Wil¬son, 2013); «Strategic Approach to Coping Scale» (SACS) questionnaire; «The test of antici¬pation competence» (V.D. Mendelevich, 2003). Results. Arab students are easier to adapt to the educational process, they have more developed group involvement, and personal-situational anticipation competence is manifested to a greater extent than among Indians. The Indians are more likely to seek social support, it is extremely difficult for them to predict difficult situations associated with time and interpersonal communication. Conclusions. The results of the study contribute to the identification of coping strategies, adaptation features and anticipation mechanisms, depending on students belonging to a particular culture.

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