a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

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