Author Sana Rehman
In 2008, it has been
estimated that more than 3.3 million tertiary international students are
studying worldwide. This shows a very huge percentage(OECD,
2010). The
world has become a global village so almost every country is welcoming
students, sometimes through scholarships, exchange programs and sometimes
through the links between government and universities Overall, half of all
tertiary students choose to study in United Sates of America (USA), 10% in
United Kingdom (U.K.) and 7% in Germany , France and Australia. Other hosting
countries include Canada, Russia, Italy and Japan (OECD, 2010). International
students are seen to be important financial service provider for these
countries, where almost $19 billion are contributed annually to each Australia
and U.S. while almost $14 billion to the U.K (Australian
Education International, 2010; NAFSA, 2010; UK Council for International
Student Affairs, 2010).
These international
students not only are a valuable financial asset but also enrich the countries
with their diverse heritage and perspectives and thus lead towards better
cultural awareness (Bevis, 2002; Harrison, 2002). The international
students also bring along with them wide range of knowledge and skills to the
host countries and also serve their work force well. Despite that, it is
actually mutually beneficial when two cultures come together and come in
contact and share their values etc, living in a different culture is challenging
(Berry, 2005). Moving to a new foreign country brings a number of
potential challenges including acculturative stress, adjustment problems and
academic stressors. The adjustment issues that it initiates could
not only have negative consequences for the psychological health of the
students, but could also impact their academic achievement and leads to poor
academic performance. Research evidence
supports this assertion by indicating that the academic stressors which
international students in the US have to contend with are much tougher than the
ones faced by American national students (Misra, Crist & Burant, 2003).
Literature also establishes the importance of social support by indicating that
social support from a variety of sources could help students achieve a
substantially better academic output (Rosenfeld, Richman & Bowen, 2000). The lack of social support, academic
stressors and loneliness are the factors which impact the academic performance
of the students. Wang, Lin, Pang and
Shen (2007) indicated that in addition to the adjustment issues, international
students face some common stressors during their transition. These include academic
challenges, the pressure to succeed in unfamiliar educational environments,
anxiety related to second language, homesickness, issue self-esteem, housing
issues , understanding and accommodating in new culture , lack of social
support, discrimination, and stereotypes.
In case the social support could be enhanced, the stressors could be
easily overcome and international students can get benefit from their academics
in appropriate way. Seeing this, this study is quiet timely in addressing the
impact of social support on depression and academic achievement among the
international students studying in American, which is the country hosting the
largest number of international students.
Social Support
Kahn
(1979) conceptualized social support as involving the expression of positive
effect towards someone, or the promotion of another individual’s behaviors or
views (p. 85). House (1981) links social support to be acontract in which
emotional concern and aid is exchanged between two individuals bonded together.
Interpersonal relationships are very important. They make the social support at available throughof
information, emotional concern and help are seen to promote health by imparting
feelings that one is being cared for, beliefs that one is esteemed, and a sense
of belonging to a reciprocal network (Aro, Ha¨nninen, & Paronen, 1989; Cauce,
Felner, & Primavera, 1982)
There are various factors which are associated with the
better adjustment, mental health and ability to overcome the problems. Of these
factors one important factor is social support. Social support is associated
with higher level of adjustment and better ability to cope with stressors. As
international students have to face a number of stressors while studying abroad
like cultural change, being prejudiced, language barriers and adjustment problems
etc, social support can be a protecting factor for these students. The role of social support is central to the
international relocations because the overseas students have to face the
disruption of established social support and face the challenges to meet the
new ones (Copeland and Norell, 2002). Within the framework of stress and coping,
social support is considered and found to be an important predictor of
psychological adaption especially during the cross cultural transitions. It is
found to have positive impact on the psychological adjustment and better coping
in new culture (Brisset, Safdar, Lewis, & Sabatier., 2010 & O’Reilly,
Ryan, & Hickey, 2010).
Summer,
Poyrazli, & Grahame (2008) examined the social support in relation to
depression and anxiety along with some demographic variables like age, gender,
length of stay and English proficiency among international students. 440
international students participated in the study. It was found that lower level
of social support is associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression
among the international students. Similarly, in another study Basol (2008)
carried out a study on validity and reliability of multidimensional scale of
perceived social support among students of Turkey. This study also indicated
significant role of social support in psychological adjustment.
O’Reilly
et al (2010) used the multidimensional scale of perceived social support to
explore the social support from significant others like friends, family,
relatives etc and its impact on variables like psychological well-being,
loneliness , stress and sociocultural adaptation among the international
university students. This study gave a significantly different findings
indicating that though the students had high level of social support and low
level of loneliness and stress, still they were experiencing problems in cross
cultural adjustment and psychological distress. Another study by Brisset et al
(2010) also gave mixed results. They studied trait anxiety, distress, social
support, cultural adaptation and identification among 112 Vietnamese students
studying in France and also French students undergoing transition in French
university. This study found that the higher the social support, the lower the
psychological distress among the international Vietnamese students, however the
hypothesis was not proved for the French students undergoing transition in
their own universities.
Yusoff
(2012) conducted a study on self-efficacy, perceived social support, and
psychological adjustment in international undergraduate students in a public
higher education institution in Malaysia. This study also addressed the
international students studying in Malaysia. As globalization is increasing
almost all countries facilitate the foreign students to join their
universities. Total 185 international
students from different universities were addressed. It was found that self-efficacy
and the dimension of friend and significant others support while addressing
social support were significantly related to better psychological adjustment.
Sawir, Marginson, Deumert, Nyland & Ramia (2008) indicated that 88% of the
international students who felt lonely turned towards social networks in order
to overcome their loneliness. The social support sources most commonly reported
were the friends, family and relatives. Actually this study indicated that the
relationship with co nationals were not enough to overcome the loneliness and problems
in new culture and actually the students who felt loneliness also had
encountered problems in making new friends in the cross culture. Thus
friendship with host national is important for reducing the levels of stress
and loneliness.