Although a substantial body of literature on stress and coping in international students exists, research has focused on the difficulties of adapting to a new cultural environment rather than the stress of leaving home (termed 'uprooting'). The present study examined uprooting stress and coping (primary and secondary) strategies as predictors of anxiety in a 3-month longitudinal study of 127 international students. Given the low controllability of uprooting, it was hypothesized that primary coping would predict increments in anxiety over time, whereas secondary coping would predict decrements. Interactions between stress and coping strategies were also expected with primary coping exacerbating and secondary coping buffering the negative effects of stress on anxiety. The data were subjected to a hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for anxiety at Time 1, cultural background, length of residence, and English language proficiency. The analysis revealed that coping strategies at Time 1 exerted main effects on anxiety at Time 2 with primary coping predicting higher, and secondary coping predicting lower, levels of anxiety. Although uprooting stress did not exert a main effect on anxiety, it interacted with coping in that, specifically as hypothesized, primary coping exacerbated the negative effects of stress while secondary coping buffered its influence on anxiety. © 2015 American Psychological Association.

Uprooting stress Primary and secondary coping International students Anxiety

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