A systematic review of examining the influence of psychological adjustment as a mediator to academic adjustment, social adjustment on academic achievement among Chinese PhD students in Malaysia

The increasing percentage of Chinese students in Malaysian universities indicates further academic cooperation between the two countries. Despite favourable government policies, numerous scholars faced difficulties in adapting to multidimensional Malaysian academic and sociocultural environment. This article involves a systematic review that explores the relevance of academic and social adjustment on academic performance of Chinese PhD holding students in Malaysia, and specifically the mediating role of psychological adjustment. The literature search was conducted in the databases of Scopus, Google Scholar, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) yielding 27 empirical studies published between 2010 and 2024. The results reveal that the language barriers coupled with the inconsistency of educational systems, the lack of cultural familiarity, and the lack of consistency in supporting institutions have a significant impact on the process of adjustment of students as well as their academic performance. Psychological adjustment ranging from emotional stability to social connectedness and general well-being is a decisive mediator between academic and social adjustment and academic achievement. The findings highlight the importance of institutional interventions, including orientation programs, psychological counseling, linguistic support and peer mentoring schemes as a means of strengthening psychological well-being and academic participation. In addition, the review also notes methodological limitations, such as the overabundance of small-scale qualitative studies and the lack of mixed-methods studies. Longitudinal, culturally sensitive research designs should be used in future research to capture the dynamic aspect of student adjustments and more precisely represent the real-life experiences of Chinese doctoral students. Taken together, this review contributes to the theoretical understanding of the adjustment of international students and provides practical recommendations that Malaysian higher educational platforms can implement to develop an inclusive policy and specific interventions able to improve both academic performance and intercultural adaptation.