RESOURCES AND RISKS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY OF THE UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR CHINESE STUDENTS: A THEORETICAL MODEL

Abstract

The growth of international academic cooperation with the People’s Republic of China underscores the importance of creating a friendly and psychologically safe educational environment that supports the adaptation of Chinese students in higher education. The research objective is to develop and validate a risk-resource theoretical model of psychological safety in the university educational environment for Chinese students, taking into account the cross-cultural context. A systematic review has been conducted using the PRISMA method. Studies from the last 7 years were selected from accessible databases: Google Scholar, CyberLeninka, Psyjournals, using the keywords: “adaptation of Chinese students”, “psychological safety”, “acculturation”, “educational environment”. Methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. At the initial stage, 150 sources relevant to the research topic were identified. In the final stage, 12 sources that most closely met the search criteria and showed a low to moderate risk of bias in study design, implementation, and analysis were included in the review, namely 8 empirical studies and 4 meta-studies synthesizing approximately 1,229 studies with a combined sample of more than 580,000 respondents. The authors present a theoretical model integrating the resources and risks associated with the psychological safety of the university educational environment for Chinese students.