title: Effects of bonding with parents and home culture on intercultural adaptations and the moderating role of genes.
abstract: In the current age of globalization, living abroad is becoming an increasingly common and highly sought after experience. Sojourners' ability to adjust to a new culture can be affected by their existing attachments, internalized as intrapsychic environment, as well as their biological sensitivity to environment. This sensitivity can be partly attributed to one's genomic endowments. As such, this prospective study sought to examine the differential effects of early experiences with parents and affection for home culture on young adults' ability to adapt to a foreign culture (n=305, students who studied overseas for a semester) - specifically, the difficulties they experience - moderated by genetic susceptibility. An additional 258 students who did not travel overseas were included as a comparison group to demonstrate the uniqueness of intercultural adaptation. Current findings suggest that the maternal, paternal and cultural bondings or affections affect different aspects of intercultural adjustment. Maternal bonding affected sojourners' relationships with host nationals, while paternal bonding affected sojourners' adjustment to a new physical environment. Moreover, individuals' genetic predispositions significantly moderate these main effects regarding how much difficulty the sojourners experienced overseas.
authors.affiliation: Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore. Electronic address: desphua@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Desiree Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Phua
authors.affiliation: Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore; Sackler Program for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill University, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Meaney
authors.affiliation: Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chiea Chuen
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Khor
authors.affiliation: Singapore Management University, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ivy Y M
authors.initials: IYM
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Chinese University of Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Yi
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance; D009769:Object Attachment; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Acculturation; Attachment; Cultural adjustment; Cultural attachment; Gene×environment; Parental bonding; Polygenic score; Sojourners