Exploring the effects of music-supported cultural adaptation activities on international students’ sociocultural adaptation and wellbeing: a pilot study

International student mobility has increased in recent years with the internationalization of higher education. However, this process may lead to acculturative stress, creating challenges for students’ sociocultural adaptation and wellbeing. Music has been proposed as a potential tool to support both sociocultural adaptation and wellbeing. This pilot study examined the preliminary effects of a five-week music-supported cultural adaptation program on the sociocultural adaptation and wellbeing of international students in Northern Cyprus. A one-group pretest, posttest design was employed with 10 participants. Quantitative data were assessed using the SCAS-R, WHO-5, and the MHC-SF, while participant journals were used to provide supplementary reflective context for the quantitative findings. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, and differences between pretest, posttest scores were examined using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Positive trends were observed in overall sociocultural adaptation (p = 0.009), particularly in the interpersonal communication (p = 0.008) and ecological adaptation (p = 0.014) subscales of the SCAS-R. Positive trends were also observed in mental wellbeing (p = 0.008) on the WHO-5 and in the emotional wellbeing (p = 0.007) and social wellbeing (p = 0.006) dimensions of MHC-SF. However, given the small sample size, absence of a control group, and single-group design, these findings should be interpreted with considerable caution and cannot be attributed exclusively to the music-supported activities. These findings suggest that music-supported cultural adaptation activities may warrant further investigation, and future research with larger samples and controlled designs is needed to evaluate their effectiveness.