title: Physiological reactivity in acculturation: a study of female Japanese students.
abstract: Several investigations have indicated that length of residence can predict acculturation associated with stress. However, there have been no studies from a psychophysiological perspective to assess whether length of residence affects physiological reactivity. The purpose of this study was to compare reactivity to psychological stress in female Japanese students of long- and short-term residence at a large university in northeastern USA, after administering a stress questionnaire to examine stress in adjusting to their US academic lives. 12 subjects were randomly chosen for each group (short- and long-term residence) from an initial population of 90 students. The subjects were presented three stressors (English-reading, stress-imagination, and arithmetic) for 2 min. each, with a 6-min. recovery period following each stressor. A significant interaction appeared for groups over time on heart-rate reactivity. While the long-term group had a linear component in heart rate across time for the tasks, the short-term group did not. Although the short-term group had higher skin temperature than the long-term group, only the short-term group had a tendency to increase skin temperature after the tasks. These data suggest that continued study of physiological reactivity to stress may be useful for developing techniques for coping with acculturative stress.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takenaka
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Zaichkowsky
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States