The purpose of present study was to examine a relation between internalized shame and adaption to college life of Chinese international students and to identify a moderating role of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation on this relation. 

A sample of 173 Chinese international students in Seoul was recruited to answer the questionnaires of internalized shame, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (acceptance & positive reappraisal) and adaption to college. 

Internalized shame showed a significant negative correlation with adaption to college. So, the higher internalized shame was, the lower adaption to college showed. And the internalized shame was negative effect on level of adaption to college when level of acceptance was high, but the effect of internalized shame on adaptation to college was disappeared when level of acceptance was low. The similar result was also found in positive reappraisal. So, the moderating effect of acceptance and positive reappraisal on the relation between internalized shame and adaption to college was confirmed.

These results suggest that during clinical intervention, practitioners should consider internalized shame as a risk factor and cognitive emotion regulation as a protective factor when dealing with foreign students’ adaption in college.