ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the gaps in research on international students, focusing on the causes and effects of loneliness during the process of adjustment. Homesickness, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and stress area few of the symptoms that are known to affect the adjustment of international students. As international students arrive in a foreign context, they are expected to adapt to an unaccustomed socio-cultural milieu for the duration of their stay. The acculturation attitude of the host society, and by association the domestic contingent of student's, is instrumental in determining the outcome of adjustment of international students. Whilst students in academia worldwide tend to experience both personal loneliness and social loneliness because of a loss of contact with family and their established social networks. The chapter demonstrates the acculturation models introduced over the last two decades fail to adequately portray the potential psychological distress experienced by international students during the adjustment process.
