最近三十多年以來國外留學迅速地成為許多年青人普遍的求學經驗，使人類泛文化生活適應問題成為社會科學、心理學以及精神醫學熱門的研究主題。泛文化生活適應常見的心理問題，是接受新文化的學習過程中所帶來的社會角色的變化及衝突。尤其就中國留學生而言，由於國內特殊政治環境，留學是為了保證謀生就職的途徑，他們常常完成學業後繼續永居在留學國，因此他們常常同時要扮演學生、移民者或有些甚至於難民等多種角色。這樣多種社會角色之間的衝突使中國留學生的泛文化適應更困難，而對某些其人格比較容易受傷害的學生，甚至會導致精神疾病的發生。總之，由於中國傳統文化裡，父母態度對個人行為的特異影響，中國留學生的泛文化適應，常受到家庭特異互動的影響。這種影響自出國前在計劃留學的時期就開始，一直到求學時期以及學業完成後，就職、成家、養育其子女時期長期繼續存在。本篇報告著所經驗的留學生個案，討論家庭精神互動，病理對中國留學生的社會角色的衝突及所導致的精神病理的影響。著者強調泛文化適應雖然由於社會角色的衝突，導致某些程度的心理危機，然而這種危機經驗給大部份的學生更客觀的認識，評估其人格問題，而經過適當的修正及學習過程，却成為學生人格而增强適應能力的重要轉機。

As the World gets smaller and the international exchange has rapidly become common experiences to modern men and women, psychological, social and behavioral aspects of cross-cultural adaptation has received increasing attention for study. While social and behavioral scientists are generally more interested in the effects of cross-cultural experiences on the student's attitudes, behavior and personality development, Psychiatrists are more concerned with the stress aspects of cross-cultural adaptation and the implicit emotional risks inherent in such a human experiences. The nature and extents of psychological difficulties that the students may encounter during sojourn and the mental disorders that the students may suffer, its psychodynamics, treatment outcome etc. have been the well documented subjects for study. In addition, there has been an attempt to find measures to predict psychopathology and to devise interventions that can be used before the sojourn to minimize the loss and to maximize the student's ability in coping with the problems that the students may encounter in cross-cultural adaptation. Some important findings on Chinese students in the U. S. and the American students in Taiwan have been reported in the literature. (1-9) Little has, however, been mentioned regarding the issues of family dynamics and the student's individual psychopathology in the previous studies. Quoting some illustive cases, this paper discuss the relationship between role-conflict, family dynamics and the individual psychopathology of Chinese students in cross-cultural adaptation.