a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSGutierrez, 2004). The higher rate of female involvement in self-harm is alsoconsistent with other findings in the study concerning abuse and distress, relationshipdistress, self-esteem and general stress levels. The gender difference on suchmeasures of emotional distress and the female pattern of internalising that distress areconsistent with higher female involvement in self-harming. The fact that gender actsas a significant predictor of self-harm is another indicator of its importance in thiscontext.Undergraduate students are also more vulnerable to self-harm, as are students whofeel their academic progress is worse than anticipated.Predictors of Health and Health-related BehavioursSeveral aspects of students’ well-being have been investigated in this domain:perceptions of general physical health, mental health, and health-related behaviour.Several variables have been shown to act as significant predictors in these areas, somemore consistently than others. The most consistent are cultural stress, involvement inrisky behaviour, depression and perceived academic progress.The most consistent predictor in relation to physical and mental health is CulturalStress scale. It is a significant predictor of each aspect of physical and mental healthinvestigated through regression analysis, except for self-esteem. Cultural stress is astrong predictor of depression, anxiety and stress, in fact the strongest of thepredictors of each of these dimensions. It is also a positive though weaker predictorof perceived health interference in study, that is, high cultural stress predicts strongperceived interference.The fact that cultural stress is associated with a significant amount of the variance instudents’ depression, anxiety, stress and perceived health interference in study doesnot necessarily mean it is causally related. Cultural stress might exacerbatedepression, anxiety and stress or these dimensions might increase cultural stress, theinfluence might be bi-directional, or it might be that all are affected by a thirdunderlying factor – the demands and complexities of the environment in whichstudents find themselves as international students. Whatever the case, it seemsimportant that students’ experiences of cultural stress should be alleviated.Cultural stress plays a lesser role in the aspects of health-related behaviour that havebeen investigated. It is a significant positive predictor of only one area - involvementin gambling and smoking – where it plays a relatively minor role. It also acts as anegative predictor in another domain: students’ preparedness to seek help from theuniversity counselling service, when they feel the need for help.Involvement in risk-taking behaviours, in particular drug and alcohol use, is acommon predictor of aspects of psychological well-being. The Perceptions of DrugUse and Perceptions of Alcohol Use scales are significant positive predictors ofdepression, anxiety and stress, though not of self-esteem. High scores on these scalesare predictive of high levels of psychological distress. In each case perceived druguse is a stronger predictor than perceived alcohol use. Involvement in addictivebehaviours is commonly associated with a lack of psychological well-being,especially with depression (Holahan et al., 2001; Rodgers, Korten, Jorm, Jacomb,Christensen, & Henderson, 2000).Rosenthal, Russell & Thomson, 2006 155