ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1661899
This article is part of the Research TopicIntercultural Communication and International StudentsView all 22 articles
Exploring the impact of cultural intelligence on multicultural literacy in university students: a serial mediation model of cultural exposure and cross-cultural communication skills
Provisionally accepted
- Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Cultural intelligence plays a central role in shaping students' ability to navigate diverse cultural environments, yet the mechanisms through which it influences multicultural literacy remain underexplored. This study investigates a serial mediation model to examine how cultural intelligence indirectly enhances multicultural literacy through two psychological pathways: cultural exposure and cross-cultural communication skills. Data were collected from 412 university students in China using stratified random sampling, with validated instruments measuring each construct. Structural equation modeling using SmartPLS confirmed the reliability and discriminant validity of all constructs. The results show that cultural intelligence has significant positive effects on both cultural exposure and cross-cultural communication skills. In turn, cultural exposure not only directly enhances multicultural literacy but also facilitates the development of communication skills, which subsequently contributes to multicultural literacy through a sequential mediation pathway. These findings offer theoretical and practical insights into how institutions can foster students' intercultural competence by enhancing both their opportunities for exposure and their interpersonal communication abilities.
Keywords: cultural intelligence, Cultural exposure, Cross-cultural Communication Skills, multicultural literacy, university students, serial mediation, China, Structural Equation Modeling
Received: 08 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 HAIKUO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: LIU HAIKUO, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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