Examining the Correlation between American Students’ Cultural Intelligence, Political Affiliations, and Their Social Distances from Their International Peers

Abstract

Guided by the theories of cultural intelligence and social distance, the purpose of this quantitative non-experimental study was to determine whether first-year American-born college students’ political party affiliations and cultural intelligence (CQ) relate to their self-reported social distances (SDs) from international students. One hundred and twenty-one first-year college students at a 4-year Midwestern university participated in this study. Regression analysis showed that political party affiliation (β =.194, t = 3.074, p =.003), metacognitive CQ (β = −.239, t = −.2.885, p =.005), motivational CQ (β = −.363, t = −4.225, p =.001), and behavioral CQ (β = −.215, t = −3.078, p =.003) of American-born college students were statistically significant predictors of their social distances from international peers. However, cognitive CQ (β =.009, t =.112, p =.911) was not a statistically significant predictor of social distance between these two groups of students. Recommendations for future examination of CQ and SD in the context of American higher education were provided.