a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

More documents

Recommendations

Info

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSdo not differ significantly in their sense of feeling less important in Australia than athome (B15), students from Asian countries have a significantly stronger sense ofloneliness in Melbourne than other students 48 . Again, factors correlated with homecountry culture might help account for this difference.The cultural stress items that produce the least concern in students are ones that mightbe thought more typical of culture shock – discrimination, discomfort and evenfeelings of lack of safety. Mean ratings on these three items (D20, B18 and D22) arebelow 1.0 on the four point scale, with very few students agreeing that theyexperience these situations or feelings most of the time (i.e. a rating of 3). Safety, inparticular, is not seen as an issue. About 90 per cent of the students indicate that theyhave little or no concern at all about safety in Melbourne and only 2 per cent have ahigh level of concern. Female students feel significantly less safe than malestudents 49 . Asian students (mean=0.63) are significantly more likely to feel someconcern about their safety in Melbourne than non-Asian students (mean=0.35) 50 ,though the level of concern of both groups is still quite low.The eight items set out in Table 9 form a scale, the Cultural Stress scale. Mostvariables that produce differences in students’ scores on this scale relate, notsurprisingly, to the cultural background of the students, although some otherdemographic variables do differentiate among students. No significant differenceswere found on the basis of gender, faculty 51 , number of years enrolled at theuniversity, number of years in secondary education in Australia or completion ofFoundation Studies.The following variables distinguish significantly among students in terms of theirscores on the Cultural Stress scale.• Younger students tend to have a higher level of cultural stress, though therelationship between age and cultural stress is borderline 52 .• Single students have a significantly higher Cultural Stress scale score thanstudents with partners 53 .• There is a main effect for course type, with undergraduate students experiencingthe highest level of cultural stress and postgraduate research students the lowestlevel 54 .• Students who feel their academic progress is not as strong as expected experiencea significantly higher level of cultural stress than those who believe they are doingbetter than expected or as well as expected 55 .• Those students who have a child living with them in Australia are less culturallystressed than those who have children but not in Australia with them 56 .48 t=2.13, 952 df, p
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS• There is a significant main effect for students’ country category, with pair-wisecomparisons showing that students from English-speaking countries (UK, USAand Canada) and from Europe are significantly less culturally stressed thanstudents from PR China, Hong Kong and sub-Sahara Africa 57 .• Students from Asian countries have significantly higher scores on the CulturalStress scale than other students 58 , as do students who did not speak any Englishwhen growing up 59 and students who speak a LOTE when off the campus 60 .These eight variables, together with age, were entered into a multiple linear regressionanalysis to determine which variable or combination of variables best predict(s)students’ level of cultural stress. It proved necessary to remove the variableconcerned with having a child living with the student in Australia because thisreduced the number of cases in the analysis to 46, a clearly inadequate representationof the sample 61 . The model that was achieved provides a significant prediction of theCultural Stress scale score (F(2,924)=30.22, p
Page 5: HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIO
Page 9 and 10: HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIO
Page 92 and 93:
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIO
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190:
show all

a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?