Demographic Variables Influence on Culture Shock and Intercultural Communication Apprehension

The study investigated culture shock and intercultural communication apprehension of Nigerian students between the ages of 18 and above, in Girne American University. The volunteered students completed the following instruments Cultural Distance Index, Culture Shock Questionnaire, and Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension, and demographic forms. Descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient analyses, and Main Effects MANOVA Model computed for the 352 participants. Significant positive relationship between culture shock, and intercultural communication apprehension, were found suggesting that students that experience higher levels of culture shock are likely to be experiencing high level of communication anxiety. The results showed that gender, past travel experiences, were not influential factors in students degree of culture shock, and intercultural communication apprehension. However, length of stay in North Cyprus, and age influence levels of culture shock, and intercultural communication apprehension.