Acculturazione e consumo di alcolici negli studenti italiani in mobilità internazionale. Uno studio mixed methods

The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of acculturation and socio-cultural and psychological adjustment in the alcohol consumption phenomenon among students in international mobility (Credit Mobility Students ‒ CMS). It has been suggested, consistently with acculturative stress and coping theory and socio-cultural learning theory, that acculturative orientation towards the country of origins, high level of socio-cultural adjustment and lower rates of psychological adjustment could work as risk factors for alcohol consumption increase among this population. The study adopted a mixed-method design. An online anonymous questionnaire was submitted in two times (T1 pre-departure and T2, during the sojourn) to a first sample (N = 231; gender = 68.4% female e 31.6% male; average age = 22, SD = 1.54), composed of Italian credit mobility students from a Milan university. 30 of them were also interviewed after their return. Logistic regression’s results showed that psychological adjustment was the only variable significantly and positively associated with the amount of alcohol consumed, falsifying the hypothesis. Qualitative results suggested that participants led a lifestyle similar to holiday-makers, featured by limited contact with the local culture, condition that seems to be connected with alcohol consumption rates. In conclusion, the existing theoretical frameworks developed on immigrant population resulted inadequate to explain the drinking phenomenon among Italian CMS.