a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne
a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne
a growing experience - Student Services - University of Melbourne
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HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTSa day also give a rating <strong>of</strong> 2 or 3 on item B19. Of the 46 least frequent smokers, 16feel their smoking is nevertheless a problem.It is interesting to compare the students’ perceptions <strong>of</strong> these four areas <strong>of</strong> healthrelatedbehaviour: drugs, alcohol, gambling and smoking. Table 68 presents students’perceptions <strong>of</strong> change and problems in relation to each <strong>of</strong> these behaviours. Thiscomparison shows that smoking is the only area in which the percentage increase inthe behaviour is parallelled by the percentage perceiving a problem to exist.Table 68<strong>Student</strong> perceptions <strong>of</strong> four types <strong>of</strong> health-related behaviourPercentage responsesType <strong>of</strong>No increase Some increase No problem Some problembehaviour(Rating <strong>of</strong> 0) (Rating <strong>of</strong> 1, 2 or 3) (Rating <strong>of</strong> 0) (Rating <strong>of</strong> 1, 2 or 3)Drugs 94.6 5.4 97.2 2.8Alcohol 74.3 25.7 93.2 6.8Gambling 94.1 5.9 97.0 3.0Smoking 91.6 8.4 91.9 8.1The three items concerning smoking and the two items measuring students’perceptions <strong>of</strong> gambling (items D28 and D26) inter-correlate significantly. Togetherthey form a scale, the Perceptions <strong>of</strong> Gambling and Smoking scale, which has a meanscore <strong>of</strong> 0.11, a range <strong>of</strong> 0 to 2.8, and a standard deviation <strong>of</strong> .33.Only two demographic variables differentiate significantly among students in terms <strong>of</strong>their scores on this scale. Male students have significantly higher scores on the scalethan female students 307 . There is also a significant main effect for academic progresson perceived gambling and smoking 308 . <strong>Student</strong>s who perceive their academicprogress to be worse than expected have the highest score and those doing as well asexpected have the lowest.The Perceptions <strong>of</strong> Gambling and Smoking scale correlates significantly with fourother scales. It correlates negatively with the Connectedness scale 309 ; the stronger thestudent’s sense <strong>of</strong> connectedness, the lower the perceived gambling and smoking. Itcorrelates strongly, significantly and positively with the Perceptions <strong>of</strong> Drug Usescale 310 , and the Perceptions <strong>of</strong> Alcohol Use scale 311 and to a smaller but stillsignificant extent with the Cultural Stress 312 , Depression 313 , Anxiety 314 and Stress 315scales.307 t=3.24, 541.1 df, p
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