Are You Satisfied? Exploring the Mediating Effects of Mentoring Communication Strategies in Predicting Chinese International Graduate Students’ Program Satisfaction

This study examined how mentoring initiation and maintenance strategies mediate the relationship between acculturative stress and intercultural communication competence on Chinese graduate students’ program satisfaction. Results supported a partial mediation effect for mentoring maintenance strategies. By specifying the mediating effect, the model explained significantly more variance in program satisfaction beyond the direct effects of the intercultural variables. We extended one premise of mentor enactment theory to a cross-cultural context by investigating the unique roles of expressing appreciation and communicating personal goals as effective maintenance strategies in predicting Chinese international graduate students’ satisfaction. Practical implications are also discussed.