Psychological Adjustment Scale

Abstract

The Psychological Adjustment Scale (PAS) is a critical psychometric instrument designed to quantify the psychological adjustment and emotional well-being of individuals, known as sojourners, who are undergoing significant cross-cultural transitions. Primarily rooted in acculturation research, the PAS evaluates the degree of psychological distress or satisfaction experienced by migrants, most frequently international students, following their relocation to a novel cultural environment. The scale offers a multi-faceted measure of affective demands management, encompassing domains such as self-esteem, academic confidence, anxiety levels, and feelings of isolation stemming from the migratory experience.

Keywords

Psychological Adjustment, Acculturation, Cross-Cultural Adaptation, International Students, Well-being, Psychological Distress, Sojourners, Homesickness, Cultural Transition.

Authors

Colleen Ward, Antony Kennedy, Chung-Ching Wang, Bruce Mallinckrodt.

Purpose

The essential purpose of the Psychological Adjustment Scale is to provide a quantitative assessment of how successfully individuals, particularly those maintaining a sojourner status, manage the inherent emotional and psychological challenges associated with living in a new culture. Researchers utilize the PAS as a diagnostic tool to systematically identify specific factors that either contribute to psychological distress or facilitate successful adaptation throughout the complex process of acculturation.

In academic and counseling contexts, the scale is invaluable for studying the interplay between various acculturation strategies (e.g., integration, separation, marginalization, assimilation) and resulting mental health outcomes for students studying abroad. The insights derived from PAS scores are crucial for developing targeted counseling and support services aimed at improving the overall welfare and successful adaptation of the student population during their cultural transition.

Construct

The PAS measures the core construct of Psychological Adjustment, which is defined as the subjective state of well-being and the relative absence of debilitating mental health symptoms, such as acute anxiety or depressive affect, during a significant life transition like migration. This construct fundamentally captures the internal, emotional, and affective experiences of the individual.

It is important to distinguish psychological adjustment—the internal emotional state—from sociocultural adjustment, which relates primarily to behavioral competence, skill acquisition, and functional success within the host culture. The current 20-item version of the PAS is multi-faceted, tapping into sub-domains highly relevant to the international student experience, including academic self-efficacy, affective symptoms (e.g., sleep disturbances, irritability), self-esteem, and feelings of social isolation and homesickness.

Validity

The validity of the Psychological Adjustment Scale is well-supported in acculturation literature. Its construct validity is typically established through robust correlations with existing, reliable measures of psychological distress and general well-being, such as established standardized depression and anxiety inventories. Research has consistently confirmed expected theoretical relationships between PAS scores and crucial antecedents of adjustment, including available social support networks and perceived cultural distance.

Furthermore, the scale exhibits strong criterion validity by demonstrating sensitivity in differentiating between individuals who report high levels of satisfaction and successful adaptation in the host country versus those who are experiencing significant emotional difficulty. This confirms that the instrument accurately captures meaningful variations in psychological adjustment outcomes across the population of sojourners.

Reliability

The instrument demonstrates excellent internal reliability, or internal consistency, across various studies and populations. The reported coefficient alpha (Cronbach’s alpha), based on foundational research by Ward & Kennedy (1999) and subsequent applications, consistently falls within the robust range of .84 to .91. This high degree of reliability signifies that the individual items within the scale are highly coherent and consistently measure the intended underlying psychological construct of adaptation or distress, ensuring stable and trustworthy measurement.

Factor Analysis

While the PAS can be summed to yield a single, global score representing overall Psychological Adjustment, factor analytic investigations frequently reveal a distinct, underlying structure. In applications focusing specifically on student populations undergoing acculturation, the items often resolve into a clear two-factor solution.

These two primary factors usually represent: 1) General Psychological Distress (encompassing symptoms such as anxiety, depression, feelings of failure, and low confidence); and 2) Well-being or Satisfaction (reflecting positive self-attitude and life satisfaction in the new environment). The specific 20-item version, tailored to include elements like academic self-efficacy and cultural isolation, may sometimes support a more multi-factor structure designed to capture the unique complexities of the cross-cultural adaptation challenges faced by international students.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychometric Scale

Format: 20 items utilizing a 5-point Likert Scale response format, where 1= Strongly disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neutral; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly agree. Negatively worded items must be reverse-coded prior to summation.

Language Available: Primarily English; adaptations have been used in Chinese/Taiwanese and other cultural contexts.

Population Group: Sojourners undergoing cross-cultural transition.

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults (typically university students).

Population Details: Most commonly applied to international students studying abroad, particularly those relocating from East Asian cultures to Western countries like the U.S.

Test Methodology: Quantitative assessment of subjective emotional state and well-being related to relocation stress and cultural adaptation.

Keywords

Psychological Distress, Self-Esteem, Academic Confidence, Cross-Cultural Adjustment, Internal Reliability, Affective Symptoms, Sojourner Adaptation.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The foundational concepts and initial items related to adjustment were established by Ward & Kennedy in the early 1990s (e.g., 1994). The specific 20-item version presented here was utilized in doctoral research in 2009. The scale is generally considered available for academic research purposes, though researchers should cite the original sources appropriately.

The original PDF containing this instrument (as used in Wang, 2009) can be downloaded here: https://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2009/wangw58087/wangw58087.pdf

Reference’s

• Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (1994). Acculturation strategies, psychological adjustment, and sociocultural competence during cross-cultural transitions. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 18, 329-343.
• Ward, C., & Kennedy, A. (1999). The measurement of sociocultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 18, 329-343.
• Wang, C.-C. & Mallinckrodt, B. (2006). Acculturation, attachment, and psychological adjustment of Chinese/Taiwanese international students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 422-433.
• Wang, Wei-hsuan. (2009). Chinese international students’ cross-cultural adjustment in the U.S.: the roles of acculturation strategies, self-construals, perceived cultural distance, and English self-confidence. University of Texas at Austin. PhD Dissertation.

Items of the Psychological Adjustment Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I feel I am able to do my schoolwork as well as most other international students.
2. I feel I am able to do my schoolwork as well as most other American students.
3. I take a positive attitude toward myself after I came to the U.S.
4. Overall‚ I am satisfied with myself and my life after I came to the U.S.
5. I feel upset often since I came to the U.S.
6. I feel more discouraged about my future than I used to be since I came to the U.S.
7. I often feel like I am a failure since I came to the U.S.
8. I am not as confident as I used to be since I came to the U.S.
9. I cry more than I used to since I came to the U.S.
10. I don’t consider myself as worthwhile and useful as I used to since I came to the U.S.
11. I can’t concentrate as well as usual since I came to the U.S.
12. I often can’t sleep well after I came to the U.S.
13. I am more irritable than usual.
14. Sometimes I feel I am treated differently in an uncomfortable way because I am a foreign student.
15. I feel homesick quite often.
16. I miss the people and country of my origin.
17. I feel uncomfortable to adjust myself to American cultural environment.
18. I often feel lonely and isolated since I came to the U.S.
19. I do not have a sense of belonging here.
20. I feel more anxious than I used to since I came to the U.S.

Scoring Key:

1= Strongly disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neutral; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly agree

Negatively worded items were coded reversely