Journal of Studies in International Education

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Register here to gain access to SAGE's 500+ Journals Online

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
1028315306293547v1
12/1/56    most recent
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Martens, V. P.
Right arrow Articles by Grant, P. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
This version was published on March 1, 2008
Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, 56-75 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1028315306293547

A Needs Assessment of International Students' Wives

Vonda Plett Martens

University of Saskatchewan, v.plett{at}shaw.ca

Peter R. Grant

University of Saskatchewan

Despite the unique adjustment challenges facing international students' spouses, little research has focused on their adjustment experiences or their programming needs. Understanding the adjustment of these individuals is important both in itself and because spouses play a key role in the adjustment and academic success of international students. Because women make up the vast majority of accompanying spouses, two needs assessments were conducted to explore their particular adjustment experiences and gather information relevant to program development. Hypotheses regarding the impact of conational group size on adjustment were tested as well. Seventy-six wives of international graduate students at a midsized Western Canadian university completed a questionnaire. Results suggest these women are highly educated professionals who face a variety of unique cultural and situational adjustment issues. Overall, their preference is for programming with a professional development focus. Unexpectedly, few differences based on conational group size were found. Research implications for service providers and researchers are discussed.

Key Words: university program development • international students' services • international spouses' needs assessment • cross-cultural adjustment • sojourner adjustment


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?