Cultural Sensitivity of Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian Students

The aim of the study was to establish the level of cultural sensitivity of Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian students, as well as characterize the differences in this respect between these groups. Cultural sensitivity is understood here as an indicator of intercultural communicative ability, which manifests itself in willingness to engage in interactions with people of different cultures. The study was conducted using a diagnostic poll with the research tool Intercultural Sensitivity Scale developed by G.M Chen and J.W. Starosta. Another methods employed included the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and LSD test. The subjects of the study were 293 students of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and Vincent Pol University in Lublin, 91 of whom were Polish, the same number of Ukrainians and 101 Belarusians. The research showed that the Ukrainian students are the most willing to engage in conversation with a person of different culture, obtaining average and high results for all factors. The lowest results, in turn, belong to the Poles, whose results were all average. Statistical analyses showed that the differences are statistically significant for 4 out of 5 examined dimensions of sensitivity. The students from Ukraine turned out to be the most diversifying group.