Culture shock and social support: a survey in Greek migrant students.

BACKGROUND

Culture shock is a form of psychological distress associated with migration. Social support has been identified as significantly related to the onset, course and outcome of many psychological disorders.

AIM

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between culture shock and social support, in terms of size, diversity of the social network and quality of support received, in Greek students, in the UK.

METHOD

A total of 133 students completed 3 self-administered questionnaires: Culture Shock Questionnaire, Social Support Questionnaire and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).

RESULTS

Gender and the quality of support received were found to be strongly associated with culture shock. Furthermore, culture shock was significantly positively related to the level of current dysphoria and diminished with time.

CONCLUSION

Social support is an important factor associated with the degree of culture shock and should be taken into consideration in order to protect against or help to overcome this kind of psychological distress experienced by migrants.