Cultural Competency Among the Students of

Adventist University of the Philippines

A Research Paper

Presented to

Dr. Jolly Balila

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the requirements for the subject

Advanced Research Methods

Sinaga, Yakobus

Rowena, Ramos

February 22, 2018

 Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 4

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 4

Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................ 6

Hypotheses .............................................................................................................. 6

Significance of the Study ........................................................................................ 7

Scope and Limitation .............................................................................................. 7

Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................. 8

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND RELATED STUDIES ............................................... 8

Cultural Competency .............................................................................................. 8

Emotional resilience.............................................................................................. 11

Flexibility/Openness ............................................................................................. 13

Perceptual acuity ................................................................................................... 15

Personal autonomy ................................................................................................ 17

Definition of Terms............................................................................................... 19

Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 20

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................... 20

Research Design.................................................................................................... 20

Population and Sampling ...................................................................................... 20

Instrumentation ..................................................................................................... 24
 The cross-cultural adaptability inventory ............................................................. 25

Data Gathering Procedure ..................................................................................... 26

Statistical Treatment ............................................................................................. 27

Chapter 4 ........................................................................................................................... 28

Results and Discussion ..................................................................................................... 28

Cultural Competency of the Students ................................................................... 28

Means difference between cultural competency by age ....................................... 30

Means difference between cultural competency by gender .................................. 32

Means difference between cultural competency by Years of stay in AUP........... 34

Chapter 5 ........................................................................................................................... 35

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................... 35

Summary of Findings ............................................................................................ 35

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 36

Recommendations ................................................................................................. 38

References ......................................................................................................................... 39
 Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

A human being is social in nature. We have the tendency to live in a community

and keep in contact with each other all the time as the old proverb said: “no man is an

island.” Nevertheless, it does not mean that we will always live peacefully with other

people who have the same culture with us all the time. Yet, in one way or another people

learned to adapt to a different culture and adjust their life one way or another. The

Philippine society itself is interesting because it was influenced by Spanish and also

American not to mention that there were many indigenous people with their own

respective cultures (Borlaza, 2016).

Cultural competence was defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and

policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that

system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.”

(Cross, T. L, Bazron, B. J., Dennis, K. W., & Isaacs, M. R., 1989). In other words,

cultural competence means how a person can develop a set of personality that will help

him/her to work better in an environment surrounded by people coming from different

cultures. In student’s life, cultural competence means the ability to work with fellow

students and teacher coming from a different culture.

In the Philippines, there were 177,365 foreigners in the country as of May 2010

where one out of three foreign citizens were residing in the National Capital Region
(Philippine Statistics Authority, 2012). It means that the Philippines is one of the

multicultural countries hence cultural competence is a very important trait to develop.

Figure 1 below depicts the top 5 countries of origin of foreign citizens in the Philippines

as of 2010.

Figure 1

Top 5 countries of origin of foreign citizens in the Philippines 2010

There are many international students coming to the Philippines to study. Santos

(2014) stated that the five top foreign enrollees in the country are South Koreans, Indians,

Iranians, Chinese, and Nepalese. Many of these foreign students are studying at Centro

escolar university, Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP), University of the

Philippines, and others private or governmental universities (Santos, 2014). It is

interesting to note that AUP is included as one of the universities that have many

international students. Hence, cultural competency should be important values to develop

for both students and the teachers.

Statement of the Problem

This study wanted to determine the cultural competency level among AUP

students and its relationship with culture and years of staying in the Philippines.

Specifically, this study attempted to answer the following questions:

1. What is the extent of cultural competency among AUP students in terms of

a. Flexibility/openness

b. Emotional resilience

c. Perceptual acuity

d. Personal autonomy

2. Is there a statistically significant difference in cultural competency by age?

3. Is there a statistically significant difference in cultural competency by gender?

4. Is there any relationship between cultural competency and years of living in

the Philippines?

Hypotheses

The researcher set the following null hypotheses:

1. There is not a statistically significant difference in cultural competency by age.

2. There is not a statistically significant difference in cultural competency by gender.

3. There is not a statistically significant difference in cultural competency by years

of living in the Philippines.

Significance of the Study

1. To the School Administrators: The result of this study can help school

administrators to be aware of students’ cultural competency level and create a

supportive and productive environment in the University for All Cultures.

2. To the Guidance Counseling office: The result of this study can provide

necessary information to create programs that will help students in adjusting to

fellow students coming from different cultures and nationalities. A cultural

competency program will help to lessen the impact of culture shock that might

happen among the students.

3. To the University Teachers: The result of this study can help AUP teachers to

understand their students better and incorporate in their class the importance of

toleration and understanding towards people coming from a different culture.

4. To the University Students: The result of this study can help AUP students to be

aware of their cultural competence and it will help them to realize the importance

of understanding every culture around them without any bias or preconception.

Scope and Limitation

This study covered the following variables such as emotional resilience,

flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, personal acuity, and personal autonomy. It was

done among students of AUP during 1st semester 2015. Hence, it only covered college

students studying in AUP and does not apply to another school, either public or private.
 Chapter 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND RELATED STUDIES

This chapter presented the significant studies and findings of previous researchers

that are related to the study. The conceptual literature and related studies are about

cultural competency, emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, and

personal autonomy. A review of related literature on the relationship between cultural

competency and one’s education is also presented as well.

Cultural Competency

Culture is defined as a pattern of knowledge, belief, and behavior of a group. It

can also be defined as a set of shared attitudes, values, and goals of a racial, religious and

racial groups Cultural competence is defined as the ability to interact effectively with

people of different cultures (SAMSHA, 2016). It can be understood how a person can

talk or communicate with somebody who is different with him/her. An example is that if

a Filipino is spending his/her holiday in Russia; it requires a certain skill so that the

person can communicate well with the Russian without offending them. Often times

cultural difference can create a gap between two persons coming from different cultures.

SAMSHA (2016) definition of cultural competence is incomplete because it is

limited only to interaction. The National Education Association (NEA) (2006) expand the

view of cultural competence by defining it as an awareness of one’s own cultural identity

and views about the difference, and also the ability to learn and build a relationship with

an intercultural community. This view of cultural competence is more accurate because

it showed that cultural competence is not only about good communication, but it moves

further into the building and learning something that is different.

Cultural competence is applicable in every aspect of life. In the healthcare setting,

different racial and ethnic minorities have their own vulnerability towards morbidity and

mortality. This presented problems because there are both language and communication

barriers among health care providers and the patient (Cooper, L, & Roter, D., 2003). Saha

and Fraser (2000) concluded in their study insufficient training in cultural competence

was associated with a reduction of quality patient-physician interaction among non-white

patient which led to lower general satisfaction towards health care itself. Hence, this fact

showed that healthcare workers that have been trained to be culturally competent will be

able to understand their patient better, ensured quality treatment for them, and improved

patient-doctor interactions.

In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services had created

guidelines in order to ensure health care services that cater towards people coming from

different culture and language (Institute, 2004). There are also several professional

organizations that have been playing an important role to improve cultural competence

among healthcare workers. Some of these organizations are the American Medical

Association and also the Society of Teachers of Family Medicines. Usually, they

developed their own curriculum to educate health professionals about cultural

competency and sensitivity (Institute, 2004).

 In terms of school life, those who are culturally competent have greater self-

awareness, a better understanding of the different cultural characteristics, and school

performance (Jones, 2014). Cultural competence cannot be confined to the scope of the

classroom alone, it goes beyond towards student’s family and even the communities as

well (Spence, 2016). These arguments signify the importance of cultural competence

among students and teachers.

Pedersen (1994) stated that there are three domains to promote cultural and

multicultural understanding; these domains are awareness, knowledge, and skills.

Awareness means that each individual must be able to examine values and beliefs to

recognize any existed prejudiced and stereotypes that will be a hindrance towards

learning or personal development. Knowledge domain emphasized the importance of

how well an individual knows the impacts of culture towards problem-solving, managing

people, and other interactions (Pedersen, 1994). The skills domain covered the ability to

effectively managed differences with other individuals; without this domain, then others

are useless.

Even though Pedersen’s tripartite domain is important, it is not the main focus of

this study. There are many ways to measure cultural competency, yet one of the most

interesting is the cross-cultural adaptability. It was developed to assess one’s

effectiveness in doing cross-cultural interaction and communication. There are four

factors which will be focused upon; these factors are emotional resilience,

flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. Four of these variables

will be discussed thoroughly and look upon as the main factors of cultural competency.
 Emotional resilience. It is defined as the ability to cope and adapt when facing

stressful situation (Warwick, 2017). The American Psychological Association (APA)

(2018) stated that by being resilience it does not mean that an individual does not

undergo any kind of hardship or difficulty but that person still tries to adapt towards the

situation by giving positive behavior, thoughts, and actions. The formation of emotional

resilience in the early stages of life like during college is important in order to ensure

success in facing challenges in the future. Yet, it is very interesting to see further

different studies about emotional resilience.

One interesting risk that can be reduced by strengthening emotional resilience is

depression. Denny, Clark, Fleming, and Wall (2004) stated that 34.5% of the girls and

21.1% of the boys in one school at New Zealand can be classified as under a depression.

Some of the risk factors that were identified associated with depression are high levels of

poverty, witness to a violent act at home, and bullying at school. These risk factors can be

targeted to develop a program in strengthening emotional resilience among the students.

This study also reflected the holistic view of emotional resilience since it also connected

towards the environment as well.

One aspect that should not be forgotten in emotional resilience is a social

relationship. Jain, Buka, Subramanian, and Molnar (2012) concluded in the study that

positive peers and family support had significant main effects toward emotional

resiliency. This signifies that a good relationship should be encouraged not only in the

school but in the family as well. Parents should be able to be supportive towards the

children in order to build a strong social resiliency. It should be noted also that further

interventions towards high-risk youth that have been exposed towards violence should
also include community building and also developmental assets within both family and

friends (Jain, S., Buka, S., Subramanian, S., & Molnar, B., 2012).

Facial difference or appearance is also an important factor for emotional

resilience. Feragen, Kvalem, Rumsey, and Borge (2009) argued that boys with the visible

facial difference such as cleft palette have significantly more positive perceptions of

friendship which resulted towards lesser depressive symptoms compared to those who

have normal facial features. This is very interesting because it signifies those who have

different facial features seems to be more confident in their friendship and did not

consider themselves as inferior towards their normal peers. Hence, programs that

addressed social resiliency should deal with perceptions of social acceptance and

appearance as well.

Culture and emotional resilience is another interesting aspect. When people with

different cultures meet in an environment, it is interesting to see how they adapt towards

each other. Abarbanel (2017) stated that in the presence of intercultural students, it is

important to guide them to maximize their experience. This would happen by

emphasizing the fact that emotional highs and lows will be an important part of the

intercultural journey. Abarbanel (2017) also emphasized that adults should play an

important part toward intercultural students by welcoming conversation and be

accommodating towards them.

In the Philippines, there are several studies about emotional resilience. Cuadra

and Famadico (2013) argued that emotional resilience is important in order to develop

caring behavior among male nursing students. It was also encouraged to develop a

program to strengthen emotional resilience in the nursing curriculum in order to increase

caring behavior. This signifies that emotional resilience is not only an important aspect of

one’s personal development but even in their future professional life.

Flexibility/Openness. It refers to how a person adapts to a different situation,

perspectives, desire, and needs in life (Kashdan, 2011). It is one of the important traits

towards cultural competence. In terms of quality of life as a whole, inflexibility can cause

social and emotional functioning which leads to depression. Hence, flexibility must be

developed from early stages in order to prepare an individual facing different challenges

in life.

Flexibility is also important as an important trait as parents. Moyer and Sandoz

(2014) stated that flexibility functioned as a moderator in the relationship between parent

and child distress. In other words, the inflexibility or the inability of the parents to adapt

can create more stress among the children. Williams, Ciarocchi, and Heaven (2012)

argued that inflexible and authoritative parents have the tendency to produce children

with low flexibility. Furthermore, it was concluded also that flexibility decreases as an

individual aged. This study signified the importance of flexibility in parenting styles and

the long-term impact it has towards their children.

In an adult’s life, flexibility is a necessary trait, especially in the workplace area.

Bond and Flaxman (2008) concluded in their study that those who considered as flexible

have experienced lesser episodes of anxiety, depression, and also stress in their

workplace. Bond, Flaxman, Paul, and Bunce (2008) proved in their quasi-experimental

study that an intervention targeted to increase workplace flexibility has improved mental

health and absence rates. This study concluded that by enhancing their worker's
flexibility; it released more tension for the workers and give them more liberty to solve

their problems.

Flexibility also can influence one’s health. It was mentioned earlier that it can

improve mental health and reduced the risk of depression. Bonanno, Papa, Lalande,

Westphal, and Coifman (2004) stated that those who were able to flexibly suppress or

even enhance emotional expression led to lesser depression by the end of the year.

Rozanski and Kubzansky (2005) concluded further that several psychologic factors may

be protective against coronary artery disease. These psychologic factors are vitality,

emotional flexibility, and coping flexibility. This study signified the importance of

flexibility in one’s life and it was proven also to recuse adverse clinical event rates of

heart disease.

Cultural flexibility is another important matter. A culturally flexible person does

not think that another culture is lower or less important than his own culture Carter

(2010) stated that in the United States black students who studied in Majority-minority

schools have higher cultural flexibility compared to those in Majority-white students. The

study also concluded that academic placement is associated with cultural flexibility. This

is very interesting because both of the studies were conducted in one city among high

school students. By comparing students from both school, it is possible to see the

influence of environment; those who were studying in Majority white schools tend to

have lower cultural flexibility score. In other words, they are not adapting well compared

to those studying in majority-minority school (Carter, 2010).

The ability to adapt towards another culture is very important not only to thrive in

a multicultural community but to become a better person also. Biglan (2009) stated that
by increasing prevalence of people who are culturally flexible then it is possible to create

a cultural evolution. It means that people become more caring and started to develop their

own beneficial cultural practices. Biglan (2009) argued further that culturally flexible

person have the tendency to be more willing to support nonpunitive policies and

practices. On the other hand, these people will develop policies which are more caring

toward others (Biglan, 2009).

Perceptual acuity. It is defined as empathy, attentiveness towards interpersonal

relations and also behavior which was expressed verbally or not (deWald, 2009).

Understanding communication is very important especially in the context of intercultural

community. Without sufficient perceptual acuity, an individual would be having a

difficult time in properly communicating with other people coming from a different

culture. This is important because different cultures have different both verbal and

nonverbal means of communication. A single misunderstanding could spark a conflict

between the two persons. Hence, it is necessary to truly understand how to develop

perceptual acuity.

Perceptual acuity is also important in a school setting not only for the teachers but

the students as well, especially in a multicultural school. Earnest, Rosenbuch, Wallace-

Williams, and Keim (2016) concluded that an experiential learning study abroad can

increase the perceptual acuity of the students. The study involved 104 undergraduate

students in Argentina, then they were separated into two groups; those who went abroad

for experiential learning and another one just study in their own university. It is

interesting to note that after a period of time, those who studied abroad went home;

perceptual acuity was found to be higher among those who study abroad compared to
those who studied in the university. This study signified the importance of exposing

oneself towards another culture and how it has the power to change one’s perspective

especially in communicating with one another.

Another learning experience that can improve perceptual acuity is global

immersion. Glickman (2017) concluded that students who joined global immersion class

have higher perceptual acuity scores compared to those who just stayed on the campus.

The students were based in the United States, they went to Malawi for 6 weeks as part of

their global immersion class. This study is important in highlighting that by studying in

another environment then it could stimulate the intellect to developed more perceptual

acuity.

Perceptual acuity is also important for those in the medical field, especially in

dental health. Torre (2005) argued that additional issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural

differences can influence the quality of health services given to the clients. This fact

highlighted the needs to train a culturally competent health care dentist. Fitch (2004)

stated that a culturally competent dentist are those who are able to effectively

communicate with people coming from different cultures. Hence, it is important to

prevent miscommunication that will lead to increased anxiety, mistaken diagnosis, wrong

treatment, and worst the patient became noncompliant.

Tavox, Newsom, and deWald (2009) concluded in their study that there was no

significant difference in perceptual acuity among licensed dental hygienists and dental

students. This study signified that there was a lacking perceptual acuity education for

both students and licensed dentists. In other words, probably there is no special education

on perceptual acuity for the students. This is really important because without perceptual
acuity both of them could be having a difficult time in communicating with people

coming from another culture. Warren, Henson, Turner, and O’Neill (2004) also argued

that most of the dental students in Texas were not prepared to handle patients whose

primary language is not English. This is one important aspect of perceptual acuity

because communication with the patients is very important in order to avoid further

complications that might happen.

Personal autonomy. It is defined as respect for other people while still

maintaining security with own personality (deWald, 2009). In other words, it is about

looking at other people coming from other cultures with equality. It is very important

because underestimating or considering them as inferior will cloud judgment and it will

be reflected in our own behaviors toward them.

The relationship between personal autonomy has been discussed increasingly

especially in the field of parenting and teaching (Vansteenkiste, Zhou, Lens, & Soenens,

2005). In this modern world, the autonomous decision has expanded towards freedom to

choose where, how and with whom to live our lives and what kind of cultural practices to

adapt (Chirkov, 2015). This signifies that human beings have freedom in every culture

that they are living in; the problem is that often times there was no respect towards people

coming from a different culture. The loss of respect itself may be because of too much or

the lack of personal autonomy itself. One factor that should not be underestimated is the

tendency of individualism where priority is given towards one’s goal and not the group’s

goal.

The imploding individualism in modern life has their own negative consequences.

Kavanaugh (2007) argued that autonomous individualism has affected three aspects of
modern lives. These three aspects are war, reproductive autonomy, and greed. In terms of

public health, Owens and Cribb (2013) stated that individual choice is something that

should be respected. Nevertheless, public health workers should be able to make the

distinction between autonomous deliberation and autonomous action. By being able to

acknowledge the difference between the two, public health workers will be able to make

policy that will prioritize community’s health yet still respected individual choices.

Both personal autonomy and individualism are important in life. As described by

Owens and Cribb (2013) it is imperative that each individual must find the middle ground

in balancing both of these aspects. Persson (2005) described this stance as moral

individualism. It is a doctrine that gives a choice where a person can express themselves

by making an autonomous choice between idealism and fulfillment maximization. This

way, an individual may still maintain their personal autonomy yet at the same time still

achieve their desire.

Helwig (2006) concluded that the development of personal autonomy is important

especially towards personal freedom and rights. Proper education of this aspect will

nurture good reactions towards the authorities and other agents of change. Nevertheless,

even though there are many existent cultures in the world; but there have been observed

similarities in terms of the developmental pathway on autonomy.

Definition of Terms

The following are the operationally defined terms used in the study:

Cultural competency refers to as the ability to interact effectively with people of

different cultures.

Emotional resilience refers to the ability to cope and adapt when facing a

stressful situation.

Flexibility/Openness refers to how a person adapts to a different situation,

perspectives, desire, and needs in life.

Perceptual acuity refers to empathy, attentiveness towards interpersonal relations

and also behavior which was expressed verbally or not

Personal autonomy refers to respect for other people while still maintaining

security with own personality.

 Chapter 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research design, the population and sampling

techniques, research instruments, data gathering procedures, and a general overview of

each of the statistical treatment that was used in analyzing the data that were collected.

Research Design

This study was assessed using descriptive correlational design to find significant

the level of cultural competency by the means of flexibility/openness, emotional

resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. This study also determined the

relationship between those variables with cultural origins, age, and years of staying at

Adventist University of the Philippines (AUP).

Population and Sampling

The respondents that were involved in this study came from the Adventist

University of the Philippines during the school year of 2015-2016. It is important to note

that the institution is a private and sectarian by nature.

Convenience sampling was applied in this study. It is a specific type of an-

probability sampling method that acquired their data from members of the population
who can be easily approached and also available to be included in the study (Saunders,

M., & Thornhill, A., 2012). Some of the advantages of convenience sampling are

reducing the cost and time to carry out data collection and it is simple as well.

There are around two thousand students studying in the campus during the

research, most of them are staying in the dormitory and a small fraction are living

outside. The samples included in this study was composed of 100 students. Figure 1

below described the proportion according to the gender. The numbers of male and female

were almost the same with 45% of them were male and 55% are female. This signified

that even though convenience sampling was used at least there is not much difference

between the two genders.

Most of the respondents are aged between 16-20 (63%), while 25% of them are

belonged to 21-25 years old. There were only small fractions belonged to both older aged

such as 31-35 and 41-45 years old. Figures 2 depicts the distribution of respondents

Gender

44

1-5 Years 6-10 Years

Figure 1. Distribution of Respondents According to Gender

according to age. In terms of their college origins, most of the respondents belong to the

college of business (56%), in the second position there is the Graduate school (12%), and

college of health in the 3rd position (16%). Figures 3 illustrates the distribution of

respondents according to colleges.

Distribution of respondents according to age

11%
7%
12%
3% 67%

Filipino American/Fil-AM Indonesian Chinese/Korean African

Figure 2. Distribution of Respondents According to Age

Distribution of respondents according to

colleges
60 56

50
40
30
20 16
10 9
10 3 6

Figure 3. Distribution of Respondents According to Colleges

 One of the most important aspects of the study of cultural competence is the

multiculturalism of its respondents. Even though the institution involved in the study is

not an international one but there are many international students studying there. In fact,

it is one of the top educational institutions who have the most numbers of international

students. Figure 4 below described the distribution of respondents according to their

nationality. Filipino is the major participants in the study with the number of 56

respondents. Yet, the rest are divided into several nationalities and this number reflected

the multiculturalism in the institution.

Distribution of Respondents According to Nationality

16

6 56

10
3

Filipino American/Fil-AM Indonesian Chinese/Korean African Other Asian

Figure 4. Distribution of Respondents According to Nationality

Another important aspect of the demography is the years of staying in the

Philippines. This is very important because by knowing respondents years of staying then

it is possible to look for its correlations toward cultural competency. Figure 5 below
illustrated the distribution of respondents according to their years of living in the

Philippines. It is interesting to note that 44% of the respondents were living in the

Philippines only for 1-5 years. This represented respondents who were originated from

the outside of the Philippines.

Gender

11

44

40

1-5 Years 6-10 Years 11-15 Years 16-20 Years More than 20 Years

Figure 5. Distribution of Respondents According to Years of Staying in the Philippines

Instrumentation

The questionnaire that was used in this study is Cross-cultural adaptability

inventory. It is a self-scoring assessment instrument that was developed by Collen Kelley

and Judith Meyers. The cross-cultural adaptability inventory can help individuals to

understand different strengths and weakness that is existed within four important skill

areas that are related towards cross-cultural interaction (Kelley, C. and Meyers, J., 1988).
 To ensure the reliabilities and consistencies of the constructed instruments, the

researcher requested five (5) experts from the different field of studies for content

validation. After the content validity, the researcher conducted the pilot study in one

higher educational institution to determine the reliabilities of the questionnaires. The

questionnaire is composed of two section, demographics, and cross-cultural adaptability

inventory.

The cross-cultural adaptability inventory. The constructed questionnaire is

composed of 50- items measuring the cultural competency in terms of

flexibility/openness, emotional resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy.

Each item was designed to reveal how one’s individual adapt and respond towards

another person coming from a different culture. This instrument used a 5-point Likert

scale ranging from definitely true to definitely not true. The highest rating is 5 (definitely

true) and the lowest rating is 1 (definitely not true). Table 1 below described the

Instruments’ Likert scale interpretation.

In the instrument, there were several negative questions. In order to avoid

mistaken result, all negative items were recorded before the item means were averaged.

In this manner, this instruments will create a much more accurate result. Since it is

important also to determine whether the instruments are reliable or not, a reliability test

was done during the pilot study.

Demographics. The constructed instrument also aimed to get the profile of the

respondents. Respondents’ profile were classified into several such as age, gender,

college, nationality, and years of living in the Philippines.

Table 1

Instruments’ Likert Scale Interpretation

Mean Response Scale Youth Ministry Inventory

Scale Scale Response Verbal Interpretation

1 1.0 – 1.4 Definitely Not True Very Poor

2 1.5 – 2.4 Not True Poor

3 2.5 – 3.4 Uncertain Fair

4 3.5 – 4.4 True Good

5 4.5 – 5.0 Definitely True Very Good

Data Gathering Procedure

After the University Research Assistant approved this study, researchers

distributed the cross-cultural adaptability inventory for additional content validation.

There were five experts coming from different expertise involved in validating the

instruments. Afterwards, the necessary revision was made to ensure a better quality and

adaptability towards Asian settings.

The researchers then asked permission from the principle of one college to

conduct a pilot study. After it was approved, questionnaires were distributed among the

students. Data collection was conducted after the students finished with their

questionnaires and then it was given to a statistician for factorial analysis.

The questionnaires were revised based on the results of pilot study. After the

instrument was finalized, the letter of endorsement from University Research Center was
secured. The letter was used in order to distribute questionnaires in different classes and

also dormitories in the campus. It was also given to two dormitory deans where

respondents have collected also. Data collection was done personally by the researchers

in different classrooms and dormitories. After the retrieval of the instrument, data were

encoded into the computer and handed for statistical treatment by the researcher.

Statistical Treatment

The study implemented descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of

university statistician and she used Statistic Package for Social Science (SPSS) software

to determine the extent of the relationship between variables. Several goals of this

statistical treatment are to analyze, interpret, and also determine the implication of the

data that has been gathered. The following lists down all of the detailed statistical

treatment that was used in this study:

1. Frequency and percentage were used to determine the respondent’s demographic

profile such as age, gender, colleges, nationality, and years of living in the

Philippines

2. Mean and the standard deviation was employed to find the extent of the different

flexibility/openness, emotional resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal

autonomy.

3. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilized to find a relationship

between flexibility/openness, emotional resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal

autonomy towards age, gender, and years of living in the Philippines.

 Chapter 4

Results and Discussion

This chapter presents the analysis and interpretation of the data, as well as the

various findings on the relationship between flexibility, emotional resilience, perceptual

acuity, and personal autonomy. Discussions of results are presented also according to the

succession of the research questions.

Cultural Competency of the Students

This section described the finds about cultural competency among the students.

There are four variables used to described cultural competency; these variables are

flexibility, emotional resilience, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. Table 2 below

illustrated the four variables in an orderly manner.

The result showed that mean of flexibility/openness 3.954 (SD = 0.56511). This

means that the respondents have good flexibility/openness towards people coming from

another culture. It is interesting to note that similar result can be found in the score of

emotional resilience and personal autonomy. The mean of both variables are 3.9355 (SD

= 0.513) and 3.9566 (SD = 0.514) respectively. It can be verbally interpreted as good.

This result showed that the students have sufficient level of emotional resilience and

personal autonomy. The lowest mean belongs to the perceptual acuity which is 3.1393

(SD = 0.4787). Verbal interpretation of perceptual acuity is still fair.

Table 2

Description of cultural competence

Variables N Minimu Maximu Mean Std. Verbal

m m Deviatio Interpretatio

n n

Flexibility/Open 100 2.36 5.00 3.954 0.56511 Good

ness

Emotional 100 2.88 5.00 3.933 0.51301 Good

Resilience 5

Perceptual 100 2.20 4.10 3.139 0.47870 Fair

Acuity 3

Personal 100 2.86 5.00 3.956 0.51405 Good

Autonomy 6

Valid N 100

(listwise)

The result showed better result compared to the study that was done by Kardong-

Edgren and Campinha (2008). The cultural awareness test was done among nursing

students and resulted that most of them can be classified in the culturally aware range. It

is interesting to note also that the school in this research have many students coming from

different cultures hence, creating a multicultural environment. Exposure towards different

people coming from another culture has trained students to be more adaptive.
 Godkin and Savageau (2001) concluded that exposure toward multiculturalism

can improve one's cultural competence. The different exposure that was used in this study

was in the kind of international and national immersion experience. This kind of exposure

will help the students to understand different culture especially those who are not using

English as their primary language.

Means difference between cultural competency by age

This section discussed and showed the result of the relationship between the four

variables and age. The age of the respondents was divided into four groups which are 16-

20 years old, 21-25 years old, 26-30 years old, and 41-45 years old. As it has been

mentioned earlier that most of the respondents belong to 16-20 years old. It is not

surprising because those age range covered students who are in their 1st to 3rd or even 4th-

year college. Table 3 below showed the mean difference between cultural competency by

age.

Table 3

Mean difference between cultural competency by age

ANOVA

CULTURE
Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups .219 3 .073 .559 .644
W ithin Groups 12.420 95 .131
Total 12.639 98
 According to the result, there was no statistically significant difference between

groups as determined by one-way ANOVA (F(4,95 = .559, p = .644). A turkey post hoc

test revealed that there was no significant difference between each age group and cultural

competency score. Table 4 below described the result of turkey post hoc test.

The result of this study showed that age does not affect cultural competency. This

is very interesting because there are some studies that supported this view. Tavoc,

Newsom, and DeWald (2009) concluded in their study that there was only one

statistically significant relationship between age and on the CCAI scales which is

Table 4

Turkey post hoc result of cultural competency by age.

Multiple Com parisons

Dependent Variable: CULTURE

Tukey HSD

Mean
Difference 95% Confidence Interval
(I) Age (J) Age (I-J) St d. Error Sig. Lower Bound Upper Bound
16 - 20 21 - 25 -.0924 .08547 .702 -.3159 .1311
26 - 30 .0316 .15448 .997 -.3723 .4356
31 - 35 -.1225 .16799 .885 -.5618 .3168
21 - 25 16 - 20 .0924 .08547 .702 -.1311 .3159
26 - 30 .1241 .16437 .874 -.3058 .5539
31 - 35 -.0301 .17713 .998 -.4933 .4331
26 - 30 16 - 20 -.0316 .15448 .997 -.4356 .3723
21 - 25 -.1241 .16437 .874 -.5539 .3058
31 - 35 -.1542 .21894 .895 -.7267 .4184
31 - 35 16 - 20 .1225 .16799 .885 -.3168 .5618
21 - 25 .0301 .17713 .998 -.4331 .4933
26 - 30 .1542 .21894 .895 -.4184 .7267
flexibility/openness. Furthermore, it was concluded in the study also there was no

statistically significant difference among licensed hygienists and students and CCAI

scores. It is obvious that the licensed hygienist is at the older age compared to the

students.

Means difference between cultural competency by gender

This section described whether if there is means difference between cultural

competency by gender. As it has been mentioned earlier that the gender proportion of the

students were almost balanced. There were 45 male and 55 female, it seems like there are

more female compared to the male but the difference is only by ten persons. A t-test was

used to see if there are any statistically significant difference between cultures by gender.

Table 5 below shows the result of group statistic. Table 6 also showed the result of

independent samples test.

From the group statistic, it is interesting to note that the mean culture for a male is

3.7684 while the mean culture for a female is 3.7311. It seems like there is not much

difference between the two genders because the mean cultural difference between male

and female is only 0.0373. The result of independent t-test showed that cultural score of

male (3.77 ± 0.36) had no statistically significant difference with the female cultural

score (3.73 ± 0.49).

The result of this study showed that even though male has higher means score of

culture but there was no significant difference with the female. This is completely

opposite of the study by Gartner, Sadilek, and Zadrazilova (2017) where they concluded

that female students score higher compared to the male. Nevertheless, the study was done

in completely different countries and it may contribute to the different result. Yet it is
Table 5

Group statistic of culture and gender

Group Statistics

Std. Error
Gender N Mean Std. Deviation Mean
CULTURE Male 45 3.7684 .35882 .05349
Female 54 3.7311 .36186 .04924

Table 6

Result of Independent Sample Test of Culture and Age

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test for

Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interval of the
Mean Std. Error Difference
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper
CULTURE Equal variances
.087 .769 .511 97 .610 .0372 .07276 -.10720 .18162
as sumed
Equal variances
.512 94.083 .610 .0372 .07270 -.10714 .18156
not ass umed

interesting also to note that male was proven to be easier in adjusting toward new culture

compared to the female (Koveshnikov, A., Wechtler, H., & Dejoux, C., 2013). Another

study by Haslberger (2010) showed the other side that female expatriates have

significantly higher levels of cultural adjustment skills compared than men. This may be

influenced by their higher social skills that helped them to maintain a better relationship.

There is a research gap here, especially the associations between gender and cultural

competency in the Philippines. It is evident that there are no studies so far that look on

this special topic.

Means difference between cultural competency by Years of stay in AUP

The demographic result showed that 44% of the respondents have been staying in

the Philippines for 1-5 years. This is very interesting because it means that many of the

respondents are foreigners. There are around 51% who have been staying in the

Philippines for more than 16 years and this may depict the Filipinos studying in the

campus. It is important to see how the duration of stay in the Philippines can influence

their cultural competency score.

According to the result, there was no statistically significant difference between

groups as determined by one-way ANOVA (F(3,95 = .559, p = .235). Table 7 shows the

mean difference between cultural competency by years of staying in the Philippines. This

score showed that those who have been staying longer in the Philippines does not mean

that they have a higher score of cultural competency. There is a research gap in this study

whether years of staying in a foreign country can influence one’s cultural competence.

There are many factors that can influence one’s cultural adaptability yet it seems like the

effect of duration of studying should be supported by programs from that school also.

Table 7

Mean difference between cultural competency by Years of staying in AUP

ANOVA

Years of s tay
Sum of
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between Groups 11.001 3 3.667 1.445 .235
W ithin Groups 241.079 95 2.538
Total 252.081 98
 Chapter 5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of findings from the result of the study, and

the conclusion, and recommendations based on the results of the findings.

Summary of Findings

The result of this study shows that students of Adventist University of the

Philippines have good scores in terms of flexibility/openness, emotional resilience, and

personal autonomy. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that the score of personal acuity

was interpreted verbally only as fair. In other words, the students have a lower score in

personal acuity compared to the other three. This shows one weakness in the cultural

competency of the students.

Personal acuity is important because it is about understanding different

communication cues whether it is verbally or nonverbally. On other hands, personal

acuity also showed whether an individual is able to understand the logic of somebody

coming from a different culture. Without proper personal acuity, then misunderstanding

might likely to happen between two different individuals. Even though the score is fair,

but it is not enough especially AUP is a school where there is a large number of

foreigners.
 The study also shows that there is no statistically significant difference between

cultural competency and gender. It means that male and female almost have the same

score of cultural competency. The result also implied that there is no statistically

significant difference between cultural competency and age. It means that maturity does

not guarantee higher cultural competency. One final result of this study shows that there

is no significant difference between cultural competency and years of staying at AUP.

Conclusion

Cultural competency is an important matter to everyone because it is about how

do people adjust and adapt towards another person coming from a different culture. This

is very applicable not only during college life but also in the future as professional. As

the world is getting more globalized, cultural clash often happen because of the lack of

understanding between different individual. By understanding our own cultural

competency then it would be possible to reduce the problem in the future and create a

better cross-cultural bond between each other.

Even though the score of flexibility/openness, personal autonomy, and emotional

resilience were interpreted as good, it does not reach very good which should be the

target. The result of personal acuity even is lower compared to the other three, and this

should be the focus of the university. To help students developed their cultural

competency.

As the researchers observed in the campus, there was no planned intervention

program from the guidance counseling department that aims to improve cultural

competency skills of the students. The absence of this kind of program has been reflected

in the result of this study. It should be noted also there are no other studies that looked
into cultural competency among college students in other college/university. Hence, it is

not possible to compare cultural competency of AUP students with another school

The relationship between gender and cultural competency is also interesting to

discuss since other studies in different countries have highlighted that female has a higher

score. This differences may be attributed to the personalities of the students in AUP both

male and female. But, it does not negate the fact that an intervention program is needed

not only for the male but also for the female as well. This study also concluded that age

does not influence cultural competency, other researchers have supported this result;

hence, no further argument on it. It is fascinating also to notice that there is no significant

difference between the mean of cultural competency and years of staying at AUP. This

result is important because it means that the school does not help students to improve

their cultural competency. It can also because of the lack of an interventional program for

the students.

Lastly, this study pointed out that AUP students at least have good scores in

cultural competency. Yet, it does not mean that it is enough. The data analysis of this

study has claimed that there are some problems that are lurking behind. It is important to

addressed those problems and in the end result, AUP will become a better come filled

with wonderful students who are culturally competent to be more adaptive towards

people coming from a different culture. This is also will impact the future of each student

since a culturally competent professional will be able to be more flexible, understanding,

filled with empathy and compassion to serve their fellow human being in this

multicultural world.
Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusion drawn from this study, the following are

recommended:

Students. Students should look for ways to assess if they are culturally

competent. By knowing each strength and weaknesses, then it would be possible to see

how to easily adapt and be more flexible toward another individual coming from a

different culture.

Teachers. Teachers should understand their students and look at their needs

better. Special attention should also be given towards other students coming from

different culture/nationalities.

Guidance Counseling Department. The department should assess each student

during their enrollment and see if there is a need for an interventional program aimed to

improve cultural competency. It is interesting to see also if a seminar on cultural

competency would be planned in every dormitory and observe what is the impact towards

the students.

Administration. The Administration should understand the need of a planned

intervention toward cultural competency both for the students and teachers. There should

be also assessment aimed at every teacher to see if they are also culturally competent in

their teaching.
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