THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING LEVEL AMONG FOREIGN NATIONAL MIDWIFERY STUDENTS

Abstract

Intercultural communication is defined as the communication process that occurs between people or groups from different cultures. Intercultural communication apprehension, on the other hand, is defined as the anxiety experienced when communicating with people from different groups. This study was conducted to determine the impact of intercultural communication apprehension level on the professional learning level among foreign national midwifery students. The data for this cross-sectional study was collected between February 2023 and April 2023. Prior to the study, approval was obtained from the Social and Humanities Research Ethics Committee of a University (Date: 27.02.2023 and Number: E-77192459- 050.99-224243). The population of the study consisted of foreign national students studying in the midwifery department of a university's health sciences faculty in Turkey (N=179). No sampling was performed, and data was collected from 86 students who agreed to participate in the study. The data for the study was collected online using the "Personal Information Form," "Sources and Problems of Motivation Scale," and "Intercultural Communication Apprehension Scale." SPSS version 23 was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, and frequency were used to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. The relationship between the scales was examined using Pearson correlation analysis. The data obtained was evaluated at a significance level of p<0.05 and a confidence interval of 95%. The mean age of the students is 22.8 ± 1.7. The mean score for the Intercultural Communication Anxiety Scale (ICAS) is 48.5 ± 8.7, indicating that the students experience a moderate level of anxiety. The mean score for the Sources and Problems of Motivation Scale (SPMS) is 88.9 ± 12. There is a statistically significant moderate positive linear relationship between SPMS and ICAS scores among the students (r = 0.491, p <0.001). As a result of this study, it was found that first-year students experience more intercultural communication anxiety compared to other students and as students' intercultural communication anxiety increases, their sources of motivation and problems also increase.