The Associations between Sociocultural Adjustment and International Students' Mental Health and Well-being

Abstract

Introduction Studying in a new country is a great opportunity, however, it might also be a very challenging experience. Studies reveal that the difficulties the international students are dealing with are different and oftentimes more pronounced than those of local students1. A lot of problems may occur during the first year of their stay in the host country due to difficult sociocultural adjustment, and those obstacles could lead to the worsening of the mental health and wellbeing of the international students. A study by Han et al. shows that international students are classified as a group at risk due to adjustment difficulties, and they are more likely to have various psychological problems2. All this suggests that sociocultural adjustment seems to be linked with the mental health and well-being of international students. Aim To measure the associations between sociocultural adjustment and international students\'mental health and well-being. Methods In total, 193 first-year international students studying in Kaunas, Lithuania filled out a self report questionnaire. The study was carried out from February to March 2020. The permission was obtained from the Kaunas Regional Ethics Committee for Biomedical Research (No. BE-2-8, 08-01-2020). Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used in this study. To measure the sociocultural adjustment the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale (SCAS)was used3. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised (CESD-R10)4scale was used for measuring the level of depressiveness. To measure the risk of general anxiety disorder, the GAD-7 scale5 was used. For the measurement of current wellbeing, the WHO (Five) Well-Being Index (1998 version)6 scale was used. The Self-rated Health Question7 was used to measure the students\' health status. To measure subjective health complaints, the HBSC Symptom Checklist (HBSC-SCL) was used. Results Overall, 58.6% of the students reported symptoms consistent with depression and 36% of them had significant symptoms of anxiety. In total, 56% of students\' well-being could be deemed sufficient. Based on correlations, international students who had better [...].