VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3
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International Students' Social Engagement and Social Wellbeing in an Australian Regional Area YUN YUE AND QUYNH LÊ
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International Students’ Social Engagement and Social Wellbeing in an Australian Regional Area Yun Yue, University of Tasmania, Australia Quynh Lê, University of Tasmania, Australia Abstract: The extent of social engagement with the local community is closely related to international students’ sociocultural and psychological well-being, but the relevant literature shows that most students have inadequate or poor engagement with the host society. This study, in the context of a university in an Australian regional area, examines various factors related to these students’ engagement with the local community and society. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected respectively by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that cultural differences, inadequate language competency, intercultural understanding, religion, psychological worries, and racial discrimination are six salient barriers obstructing international students’ positive and effective social interaction. The limited contact with the local community is significantly associated with the international students’ negative emotions, including homesickness, loneliness, anxiety and depression; and demographic factors such as age and gender are not significantly related to their social engagement, but length of stay and English proficiency in the host country have a significant impact. Keywords: Social Well-being, Racial Discrimination, Acculturation, International Students
Introduction
I
n recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of international students in Australia. According to statistics from Australian Education International (AEI 2011) in 2010 there were 619,119 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on student visas. Among these international students, 39.3 % were enrolled in higher education. Not only do these students make a substantial finance contribution to the Australian economy, but they also bring a diversity of cultures into this country. However, most international students have reported having difficulty in sociocultural adaptation into Australian society because of cultural differences between their home countries and the host country (Rosenthal, Russell, and Thomson 2008; Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001). According to Hofstede’s (1991; 2005; 1997) cultural difference model, the greater difference between the home culture and the host culture, the larger the cultural difficulties the international students will experience. The different living styles, contrasting traditions, values and norms, cultural misunderstanding, and discrimination encountered in an unfamiliar environment would overwhelmingly challenge international students, both psychologically and emotionally, and at the same time negatively influence their social adaptation and wellbeing (Gu 2009).
Background of the Study A review of literature indicated that there are four issues in relation to international students’ social-cultural adjustment: cultural value conflicts, deficient intercultural communication competency, social involvement, and racial discrimination. According to Inman, Ladany, Constantine and Morano (2001), cultural value conflicts are cognitive contradictions that are caused by differences between the values and expectations in the host culture and those of an individual’s culture of origin. Values “refer to relationships among abstract categories that are characterised by strong affective components and imply a preference for a certain type of action” (Straub et al. 2002, 64). Values are acquired early in life through family and community, and later through school. Once a value is acquired, it becomes integrated into the value system of a group of people. The value system of an individual is relatively stable but may change under the influence of culture and personal experiences (Straub et al. 2002). The value emphasising on characteristics of a culture is imparted to societal members through The International Journal of Health, Wellness, and Society Volume 2, 2013, www.healthandsociety.com, ISSN: 2156-8960 © Common Ground, Yun Yue, Quynh Lê, All Rights Reserved Permissions:
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everyday exposure to customs, scripts, norms, laws and organisational practices which are shaped by and expressed in the prevailing culture. Thus, adaptation to social reality and informal socialisation are as central to the transmission of cultural values as is formal socialisation (Schwartz 1999). Cultural value conflicts encountered by international students who are living in a different cultural context would negatively influence their psychological and social wellbeing. For example, many African students from Kenyan, Nigerian, and Ghanaian cultures, which emphasise communalism, harmony, collectivism and cooperation, may experience cultural conflicts when interacting with white American students, who tend to value independence and self-reliance in relationships (Markus and Kitayama 1991; Swagler and Ellis 2003). These African international students who treasure a highly communal lifestyle struggle to define themselves in the American individualistic society that tends to disparage dependence on others (Constantine et al. 2005). Such conflicts are highly likely to incur the sense of loneliness and isolation among those international students (Rousseau, Mekki-Berrada, and Moreau 2001). Lin and Yi’s (1997) study draws a similar finding with Asian students in America. Most Asian students feel uncomfortable when they interact with Americans because assertiveness and negotiation are highly valued in American culture, but they are not compatible with some aspects of Asian culture such as deference and non-assertiveness. According to a research conducted by Burchard and Laurence (2011) on female international students and sexual health, it reveals that they have poor sexual health knowledge compared with local students. Another factor influencing the degree to which international students adapt to their new socio-cultural environment is weak intercultural communication competency. According to Hall (1990), “communication constitutes the core of culture and indeed of life itself” (1). Based on a review of literature on intercultural communication, six factors are identified relating to communication competency: language competency, social decentring, knowledge of the host culture, adaptation, communication effectiveness, and social integration (Arthur 2004; Redmond and Bunyi 1993). Due to deficient intercultural communication competency, international students usually feel that it is difficult to communicate effectively with native speakers. They are unfamiliar with communication patterns such as the way people send and receive information, express emotion and influence each other, and they generally know little about the rules and conventions of interpersonal interaction in the new cultural context (Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001). Unsuccessful intercultural communication caused by deficient intercultural communication competency exerts a negative effect on these students’ psychological wellbeing. Redmond and Bunyi (1993) examined the relationship between psychological stress and intercultural communication competency among 644 international students attending a university in the United States. They found that two factors of intercultural communication competency – adaptation and social decentering – accounted for 16% of the variance in the amount of stress reported, and communication effectiveness, adaptation, and social integration accounted for 46% of the variance in reported effectiveness in handling stress. The extent of social involvement within the host society is another element affecting international students’ socio-cultural adjustment. Many previous studies (Heikinheimo and Shute 1986; Klineberg and Hull 1979; Selltiz 1963) agreed that adequate social involvement has a positive effect on the international students’ social, cultural, and academic adaptation. Sellitiz’s (1963) interviews with 348 male international students showed that close social interactions with American local people were related to favourable attitudes to American culture and better adaptation. According to (Heikinheimo and Shute 1986), international students who have more social contacts with people in the host country have better social, cultural, and academic adaptation. Kilneberg and Hull’s (1979) research had a similar conclusion that international students who have satisfactory social contacts, and established positive relationships with the local community during their sojourn, report greater satisfaction in their academic and social experience. However, according to the sojourner theory (Rosenthal, Russell, and Thomson 2006; Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001; Siu 1952), most international students interact mainly with those who have a similar cultural background. For example in Australia, Rosenthal et al.’s (2006) 120
YUE ET AL.: INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT AND SOCIAL WELLBEING
study found that 29.6% of the participants in their study had no social contact with Australians within the university, and 39.4% had no contact with Australians outside the university. Only 20% of the participants had a reasonable degree of social contact with Australians in either context. Racial discrimination is the one of the salient issues emerging from literature. Ward and Masgoret (2004) research conducted in New Zealand found that students from Europe, North America, South America and Australia reported the least discrimination, while students from Asian countries reported more discrimination. Those students with less social contact with local people, poorer English skills and having more contact with co-national friends reported more discrimination. Our study aims to examine international tertiary students’ social contacts and social wellbeing in an Australian rural context. Three research objectives (RO) were developed to achieve the research aim: • RO1: To identify a variety of barriers obstructing international tertiary students’ positive social contacts in an Australian regional area; • RO2: To investigate the relationships between the international students’ demographics and social contacts; and • RO3: To examine the relationship between the international students’ social contacts and their psychological wellbeing.
Methods A mixed methods research approach is utilized in this study. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected to provide a relatively complete understanding of international students’ social contacts and their social wellbeing in an Australian regional area. In this study, quantitative data is designed to give responses to all the 3 research objectives, whereas qualitative data only aims to achieve the RO1. The results drawn from both types of data will be integrated and discussed in the discussion section. Quantitative data were gathered using an 18-item questionnaire, which consists of three sections: demographic information (5 items), social contacts (6 items), and psychological wellbeing (7 items). All questions were formatted in a Likert scale: 1=Never; 2=Rarely; 3=Sometimes; 4=Often; 5=Very Often, in order to measure the degree of respondents’ views towards each item. Opportunity sampling was employed for participant recruitment. With approval of University International Offices, 800 printed survey questionnaires along with information sheets were provided on the reception desk of the office to those international students who were interested in participating. An empty box was provided for the return of completed questionnaires. The data collection procedure has lasted for over four and a half months, and a total 341 participants were recruited for this study. Compared with probability sampling, the limitation of non-probability sampling could be an inclination of bias. However, on account of limited time and budget, non-probability sampling is considered as expedient for this study. As a supplement to the quantitative data, qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interviews to provide an in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions of social contact barriers (RO1). Several interview questions were prepared in advance to give a degree of coherence to the issues emerged from the responses to the questionnaires and the themes mentioned by the relevant literatures. Interview participants were recruited by the previous questionnaire. Those questionnaire participants who are interested in interview are required to leave their contacts (email and phone) in the separate page. Researchers contacted them by email and phone and get more detailed information, such as age, gender, degree pursuing, length of stay, and English level, so that make sure to select the appropriate participants. A total of 20 international students participated were recruited for the interview. Interviews were conducted face to face at a time convenient to both the interviewer and the interviewee. Every interview takes normally within 30 minutes. Participants’ characteristics were shown in Table 1 below. 121
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Table 1: Participants’ characteristics Participants Demographic Questionnaire Characteristics (N=341) % (N) Gender Male 52 (177) Female 48 (164) Age Under 20 8 (27) 20-24 49 (167) Over 24 43 (147) Degree pursuing Undergraduate 51 (174) Postgraduate by course work 37 (126) Postgraduate by research 10 (34) Others 2 (7) Length of stay Less than 12 months 27 (92) Over one year to two years 30 (102) Over two years to four years 32 (109) Over four years 11 (37) English Level Excellent 10 (34) Good 33 (112) Just fine 47 (160) Weak 9 (31) Very weak 1 (3)
Interview (N=20) % (N) 50 (10) 50 (10) 20 (4) 20 (4) 12 (60) 50 (10) 30 (6) 20 (4) 0 (0) 20 (4) 30 (6) 30 (6) 20 (4) 10 (2) 30 (6) 30 (6) 30 (6) 0 (0)
Quantitative Data Analysis Quantitative data gathered by the questionnaire were coded and entered into the Predictive Analytics Software (PASW, version 18) for analysis. Descriptive functions including frequencies and percentages were run first to investigate the data. Further tests were conducted to find out if there were statistically significant relationships between participants’ social contacts and wellbeing and their demographics. Non-parametric Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney tests were utilized due to the non-normal distribution of collected data. These tests examine whether the level of agreement in participants responses were significantly different between various groups of international students and also indicate the factors that influence the difference. Differences were accepted as significant at p
