Army wives throughout the United States participated in a study to evaluate the application of the triadic hypothesis of social support (Sarason, I.G., Sarason, & Pierce, 1992). The concept of social support consisted of the interaction among personality, interpersonal and situational factors with situation conceptualized as the event of relocation. The three factors were hypothesized to contribute independently to the prediction of well-being. Regression analyses revealed significant contribution from personality and interpersonal factors.

This research study explored how intercultural communication factors such as values and communication styles might affect the interaction between Tamil asylees and their U.S. social workers. For this qualitative study, I interviewed 11 Tamil asylees and conducted a focus group with 3 U.S. social workers at an agency serving the Tamil participants. Based on the findings of this research as well as the literature review, this thesis reveals culture-specific information about Tamil asylees and highlights the implications of the research to the fields of intercultural communication, refugee studies, and social work. Findings revealed the following: culture general assumptions overshadow the complexity of values and communication styles when examined in context, refugees are a unique immigrant population and therefore should be the focus of more intercultural research, competent social workers seem to possess culture-specific and general intercultural skills, and social workers can apply the methodology of this study to learn about the values and communication styles of new refugee clients.