Abstract
Understanding the factors which contribute to international student academic outcomes is complex. Current research explored in Chapter 2 has identified certain factors of an international students’ experience which have been linked to academic outcomes including academic adjustment, acculturative stress, cultural adjustment, social network development, and English language confidence. Due to the complexity of these factors, there is a gap in research literature explaining the true nature of the role curricular and co-curricular program participation has on academic outcomes. This study explores known factors influencing academic outcomes alongside curricular and co-curricular program participation to better understand the effect program participation has on an international student’s academic success. A better understanding of this phenomenon provides universities an opportunity to improve the curricular and co-curricular support they offer to international students thereby increasing the accountability to international students who participate in the programming and to universities who allocate resources in support of the programs. International students attending a large public institution of higher education on the U.S. west coast, known in this research though the pseudonym River City University, were surveyed online about their international student experience. Respondents answered questions about their demographics, curricular and co-curricular program participation, GPA, and measures shown to influence adjustment and acculturation including academic adjustment, English language proficiency, life satisfaction, social connections, acculturative stress, and cultural intelligence. The data was then analyzed for simple bivariate correlations and tested through regression analysis to identify any mediators of the relationship between program participation and self-reported GPA. This research confirmed the complex nature of the factors contributing to the international student experience. Several items were found to have statistically significant correlations which confirmed how interwoven and complex this phenomenon is. In addition, several mediators of the relationship between program participation and GPA were identified, including academic lifestyle, academic motivation, social connection, and different types of social networks. Future research should explore the nature of which factors may be contributing to the mediated relationships found in order to more fully explain factors which may moderate or co-mediate the relationship.