The purpose of this study was to explore the role of friendships in the social adjustment of international students, in particular to explore the role of preference for co-nationals/co-culturals as opposed to a preference for befriending people belonging to other cultural groups. Information was gathered by a psychometric, self-report survey questionnaire. A modified version of the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (Ward & Kennedy, 1999) was used. For the purpose of this study, a Success Scale, a Co-national Scale and an Openness Scale were created. The sample consisted of 265 students studying abroad. The most important results showed that a preference for co-nationals was related to a higher amount of experienced difficulties and a lower level of success.
Keywords: exchange students, foreign students, friendship patterns, international students, Sociocultural Adaptation Scale, social adjustment, sojourn
