a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSTable 8Correlations between the Connectedness scale and other measures of socialconnectedness for students from Asian and non-Asian countriesItemAll students(n=978)#Students fromAsian countries(n=859)Students from non-Asian countries(n=96)+0.15*** +0.19*** -0.04B1 At the university, I mix socially withother international students.D3 At the university, the people I mix withsocially have a cultural background similar tomy own.B7. Outside the university, the people I mixwith socially have a cultural backgroundsimilar to my own.D11. At the university, the people I mix withsocially are Australian.D17. Outside the university, the people I mixwith socially are Australian.D24. I am involved in organised universityactivities (eg. clubs, sport) other than mystudies.D2. I am an active member of anational/cultural club or association.B8. I mix socially with people I met herethrough the practice of my religion.B11. My family is interested to know howI’m getting on with my studies.D4. My family care about whether I amhappy and well here.B3. I can contact my family at home asmuch as I need to.D7. I return home to visit as often as I needto.# Some students did not indicate their country of origin.Spearman correlations are significant at the * .05 level, ** .01 level, *** .001 level.+0.08* +0.12** -0.04+0.15*** +0.17*** +0.11+0.28*** +0.25*** +0.42***+0.24*** +0.22*** +0.38***+0.11** +0.11** +0.07+0.13*** +0.16*** -0.06+0.17*** +0.20*** +0.05+0.12*** +0.11** +0.19+0.22*** +0.21*** +0.30**+0.23*** +0.24*** +0.22*+0.13*** +0.14*** +0.04Interacting socially with both co-culturals and Australians is positively related to asense of connectedness for students from Asian countries, while for students fromnon-Asian countries only social mixing with Australians is related to connectedness.Involvement in clubs, association and especially in religious groups is positivelyrelated to a sense of connectedness for students from Asian countries, but is notimportant in this regard for other international students. Students’ sense ofconnectedness in both groups is greater if they know their family cares about theirwell-being and if they can contact them when they need to, but only for students fromAsian countries is the ability to return home as often as necessary also related to asense of connectedness.CULTURAL ADAPTATION AND STRESSORSResponses to the questionnaire provide information about students’ experience ofcultural stress in its different forms. Other aspects of living in Melbourne, such asaccommodation, finance, paid work, lifestyle balance, and experience of abuse, havethe potential to add to the general level of stress, whether culturally engendered ornot. So, too, does the student’s knowledge of the situation at home. Of particularconcern in this area is the experience of students from Asian countries, whose cultureis considerably different from that of Australia.Russell, Rosenthal & Thomson, 2006 37
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSCultural StressEight questionnaire items measured students’ feelings of dislocation, strangeness anddiscomfort living within the Australian culture in Melbourne. Table 9 presents theresults. Feelings of homesickness are to be expected, regardless of the degree ofsimilarity or difference between the cultural background of international students andthe Australian culture. Two of the three items with the highest ratings in this groupdescribe these feelings – missing the familiar way of life at home (B13) and thesadness of being apart from loved ones (D16). Average ratings of Asian and non-Asian students did not differ significantly on these items.The third item with a high average rating (B23) focuses on the students’ sense offeeling at home or belonging within the University of Melbourne context. There is anarrower distribution of individual ratings on this item, with most ratings falling intothe middle two categories, 1 and 2. Comparison of the standard deviations of itemsB23, B13 and D16 also indicates the difference in distributions. On item B23 there isa statistically significant difference between the responses of students from Asiancountries and other students; students from Asian countries feel significantly less athome in the university (mean=1.6) than other students (mean=1.2) 47 . This could be inpart due to factors other than culture that are correlated with the Asian/non-Asiandichotomy. For example, students from Asian countries have a lower average age(22.5 compared with 26.9 years), are predominantly undergraduate students (75 percent compared with 40.6 per cent) and a higher percentage are single (86 per centcompared with 55.2 per cent).Table 9Experience of cultural stress in MelbourneItems Mean SD 0Not at allPercentage ratings1To somedegree2To aconsiderabledegree47 t=3.56, 948 df, p
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