This study, grounded in the Minority Stress Model, examined how discrimination-related stress experienced by international students in South Korea affects anxiety, psychological well-being, and school adjustment, and further investigated the role of social relational resources in this process. An online survey was conducted with 248 international students enrolled at four-year universities in Seoul. Discrimination-related stress was measured in terms of implicit and explicit discrimination, while social relational resources were operationalized as social support and sense of belonging. Cormatory factor analysis was conducted to assess reliability as well as convergent and discriminant validity, and structural equation modeling was then employed to examine the relationships among the variables. The results showed that discrimination-related stress was significantly and negatively associated with social relational resources. In addition, lower levels of social relational resources had indirect effects by increasing anxiety and reducing psychological well-being and school adjustment among international students. These findings suggest that the adjustment difficulties faced by international students in South Korea cannot be explained solely by language barriers or academic burdens. Rather, implicit discrimination experienced in everyday life may also function as a significant stressor, undermining the formation and maintenance of social relationships and, in turn, affecting both psychological and school adjustment. In this regard, the study highlights the significance of everyday implicit discrimination as an important stress factor in understanding international students’ adjustment.
