Physiological reactivity in acculturation: a study of female Japanese students

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.