a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSother domains can be seen through the typology of adaptation modes that has beendeveloped.Measures of well-being in relation to living arrangements, financial support, balancebetween study and other activities, and the experience of abuse and associated distressco-vary with other indices of well-being in predictable ways in forming the profiles ofeach of the three modes of adaptation. The positive, connected mode of adaptation,for example, combines above-average perceptions of financial support, balance instudy, and below average perceptions of abuse and distress, with positive perceptionsin other domains, such as good general physical health and perceived academicprogress, and low cultural stress, depression, anxiety, stress, self-harm, involvementin drugs, drinking, gambling and smoking. In the unconnected, stressed mode ofadaptation and the distressed and risk-taking mode, these indices of well-being fromthe daily life domain also co-vary with other variables in predictable ways, althoughthe profiles that result point to a lack of well-being rather than the presence of wellbeing.The measure used for the fourth aspect of the daily life domain, the experience ofabuse and distress, takes the form of a scale. As such it was used as a potentialpredictor of dimensions of well-being in other domains. It proved to be a significantpredictor of three dimensions: the Depression scale, the Stress scale, and self-harm.In each case, the Abuse and Distress scale is a positive predictor; a high score on thisscale is associated with high levels of depression, stress and self-harm. These seemlikely to be the outcomes of experiences of abuse. However, it is also possible that aperson who is already stressed and depressed would experience greater distress ifabused, thus leading to a downward cycle of psychological distress and maladaptivecoping behaviour. Abused students are most likely to demonstrate an unconnected,stressed mode of adaptation to life and study in Melbourne or a distressed and risktakingmode.Abuse constitutes a significant threat to students’ well-being. It would be beneficialto know much more about this situation – its link with discrimination, with culturalbackground and gender, the sources of abuse, the on-campus/off-campus locations ofabuse events, and the effects of abuse on students’ lives.HEALTH AND HEALTH-RELATED BEHAVIOURThree aspects of students’ well-being in relation to the domain of health have beeninvestigated: perceived physical health, self-reported dimensions of mental health(depression, anxiety, stress and self-esteem) and a range of health-related behavioursthat do not necessarily put students at risk but which have the potential to do so.Student Perceptions of Health and Health-related BehaviourPhysical HealthThe majority of students have positive perceptions of their general physical health.Some 64.7 per cent of the students consider their health to be good or excellent, withonly 25 students (2.6 per cent) who consider that their health is poor. This does leavea substantial proportion of students, 32.7 per cent, who evaluate their health as beingonly fair. Some comparison can be drawn with the health self-evaluations of 18-24year olds in the general Australian population (Australian Institute of Health andRosenthal, Russell & Thomson, 2006 147
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSWelfare, 2003). On a five-point scale, 59 per cent considered their health to beexcellent or very good, 30 per cent believed it to be good, while 11 per cent judged itto be fair or poor. While it is difficult to map the results of a four-point scale ontothose of a five-point scale, both sets of results suggest a majority perception ofpositive health, a small minority of perceived poor health, with a substantial groupjudging themselves to be between the two extremes.It is reassuring to find that the vast majority of students, 82.3 per cent, report that theyare as healthy here as they were at home, or even healthier. It is the students whojudge their general health to be poor or fair who are more likely to feel that they areless healthy in Australia. A lack of well-being is associated with perceptions ofbelow-average health; these students have a lower sense of connectedness and ahigher level of cultural stress than other students.One finding is less expected. Students with poor general health generally andrelatively worse health in Australia than at home are less likely to seek help from theuniversity health service when in need than those in better health. This appears to becounter-intuitive, but it could be associated with the higher levels of depression andthe accompanying inertia that these students experience. Alternatively, these studentsmight have their own general practitioners and specialists, thus not needing to useuniversity services.A major consideration for students’ well-being is the effect that health has on theirstudies. Poor health can make it difficult to maintain the energy and focus on study,even at times the opportunity to participate in classes and complete work. Onceagain, the majority of students (81.9 per cent) see little or no interference with theirstudies arising from their state of health. It is the 52 students (5.3 per cent) who feelthere has been a strong adverse effect of their health on study who are of concern, aswell as the 125 students (12.8 per cent) who see a considerable effect. Students whodo not view their health positively and/or believe it to be worse in Australia are morelikely to judge their health to have a negative effect on their studies.Mental HealthThe items used in the DASS scales (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), exemplify theauthors’ conceptual understanding of the dimensions of depression, anxiety and stress.Depression is not seen to be characterised by sadness or distress, as is often thought,but by loss of self-esteem and perceived capacity to achieve the person’s life goals.Anxiety is conceived of as a prolonged state of anticipation of negative events,exemplified by having to cope with demands for high achievement that are extremelyimportant for the person to meet if self-esteem is to be maintained. Anxiety is thusthought to be different from a fear response. Stress is seen as an enduring state ofhigh arousal, resulting from the difficulties experienced in trying to meet the demandsbeing placed upon the individual. Highly stressed individuals have low tolerance forfrustration.The authors argue that the moderate correlations between the scales are due, not tooverlapping concepts, but to a common underlying cause, such as an environment thatstimulates these responses. Given these conceptual understandings, it is notsurprising to find that depression, anxiety and stress play an important role ininternational student perceptions of well-being.Rosenthal, Russell & Thomson, 2006 148
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a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

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