How can offline and online contact predict intercultural communication effectiveness? Findings from domestic and international students in China

Guided by the anxiety/uncertainty management theory, two studies were conducted among domestic students (majority; Study 1) and international students (minority; Study 2) in China. The main goals were to determine across the two samples: (a) whether intergroup anxiety and uncertainty can mediate the relationships of both offline contact (OFF-CON: direct face-to-face contact) and online contact (ON-CON: online contact through social networking sites) with perceived communication effectiveness; (b) whether OFF-CON can moderate the relationships of ON-CON with anxiety, uncertainty, and effectiveness. Results from the two studies showed that OFF-CON had indirect relationships with effectiveness via uncertainty and that OFF-CON acted as a moderator that modified the relationship between ON-CON and effectiveness. The key difference between the two studies was that Study 1 revealed anxiety as a negative predictor of effectiveness, while Study 2 revealed non-significance between the two constructs.