Depression and Anxiety among International Students - Essay Example

The article “ Predictors of Depression and Anxiety among international aims at discussing the research carried out to study the impact of different aspects of personality like age, gender, ethnicity, language proficiency and support group on the mental health of the students who have come to United states to pursue further education. To carry out the responsibility of maintaining a well being of international students, it is necessary to know the factors that affect their mental health. And this study was carried out to understand the factors that affect the international students so that in the future, programs can be designed so as to make their stay comfortable, easy and enjoyable rather than a stressful experience. Although the study started with a good intention, while reading the article, it becomes evident that the research was not well planned and many things were missed out. First of all, depression and anxiety are two different things. ‘Depression’ can be defined as a condition of emotional dejection and sadness which can go on for weeks, months and also for years ( Depression “n.d.”). While ‘anxiety’ is a mental ‘state’ or a feeling of apprehension characterized by stress ( Anxiety “n.d.”). The major difference is that depression can be for months together while anxiety is temporary state of mind which occurs in response to certain event in life . The study of the depression and anxiety should be carried out separately and not together. While answering the questions, the participants might not be able to clearly point out if what they are feeling is a something temporary or permanent in nature. The second most important thing about the study is the method that was used to conduct the study. The article says that the e-mail of request to participate in a study was sent to 3000 students and only 440 actually participated. This narrowed down the scope of the study and so, some of the conclusions could not be considered permanent. For e.g. It was found that the students from Latino ethnicity had higher level of depression than the students from Asian ethnicity. However, as the sample which was studied had very small number of students from Latino ethnicity, this finding could not be considered permanent. Third aspect about the study is its authenticity. Think for a moment that you are one of the participant. You are an international student and so obviously keep in touch with your relatives back home through e-mail. Now imagine that you are shuffling between two websites along with your e-mail asking you to participate in the test. While you are giving the online test, you are reading an e-mail telling you that your mother is unwell and you are also looking at your bank account statement showing funds that are not sufficient for your needs. Won’t these things affect the test you are taking online? Definitely it will! There are so many things that the participant is going through that he might answer the questions under the influence of current anxious state of mind. The concentration is divided and there is a possibility of the results getting changed. Hence the test taken should be a pen-pencil test where the participants should be asked to sit in a particular room where there is minimal disturbance. This sort of method will help the researchers not only to get more number of students to participate but also will give an authentic base to the results. Also, there is a huge difference in the cultural backgrounds of students coming from Asia and students coming from Latin America. When conducting a study, it has to be taken care that theses cultural differences need to be kept in mind. For e.g. students with Asian ethnicity are not open to the concept of dating and pre-marital sex. They come from a conservative background compared to the background of students from Latino and Hispanic ethnicity. There are many chances of Students from Asia to have a cultural shock as far as the openness regarding sex is concerned. And particularly female students are more prone to the shock. So in their initial interactions, the educational centers should introduce the American youth culture, their ideas, their way of dressing and their ideals to the international students. This will help to reduce the culture shock and make them feel comfortable with the idea of open sex. There are many suggestions given in the article regarding what more aspects can be considered while conduction the future study like including equal number of students from different ethnic background, focus on studying more number of students who are married and conducting the study spanning for a longer duration of time. It is also suggested to study the response they get from the local students and the effects of the environment on their physical condition as these are also the factors that has a possibility of creating depression and anxiety among international students. However there are some more aspects to be taken care of. The future research should also conduct some programs like having workshops giving information about the culture and lifestyle of the people living in United States. Let us understand that students from Asian ethnic background are born and brought up under collectivist cultural orientation. So, even though media exposes them to the American culture, there still remains a huge difference, as ‘seeing’ a culture and ‘experiencing’ a culture are two different things. Introducing international students to the lifestyle of an American family and also introducing their culture to the local students can make them feel comfortable. This will not only help them to understand why a particular student is behaving in particular way but also help them in developing respect and warmth towards each other. Programs also can be designed to generate and cultivate bonding between the female and male students so that the feeling of loneliness can be decreased. This bonding is not with the intention of making them to go on dating but to encourage them to open up and talk so that nothing is suppressed inside. The future study should be conducted in two parts. The first part is to study all the factors that are responsible for the depression or anxiety in the international students. Then the students should be introduced to the programs designed specifically for them. And after the students are put through these programs, the study should be conducted to see if these sort of interactive programs help in decreasing the level of depression or anxiety in the international students. This will help the educational bodies to make these programs permanent and part of a curriculum for international students. This is how the intention of the research will be fulfilled. References Anxiety (n.d.) In Oxford Dictionary Online. Retrieved April 23, 2009 from http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/anxious?view=uk Depression. ( n.d ) In Oxford Dictionary Online. Retrieved April 23, 2009 from http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/depression?view=uk Sumer, Seda., Poyrazli, Senel. & Grahame, Kamini.(2008). Predictors of Depression and Anxiety Among International Students. Journal Of Counseling & Development 86, 429-437 Read More