Acculturative stress status of international medical students in China and the influencing on mental health

Abstract

Objective To explore the acculturative stress and the mental health status of international medical students in China and the influence of cross cultural adaptation to mental health. Methods A investigate to international medical students in Fujian Province with Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS) and self-designed general information questionnaire, using multivariate linear regression to identity influencing factors of mental health. Results The average score of the acculturative stress was 2.63±0.81. The univariate analysis demonstrated that relative factors for the acculturative stress was the time for staying in China (P<0.01). The average score of the mental health was 2.10±0.83, obviously higher than that of Chinese models (P<0.01). The univariate analysis demonstrated that relative factors for the mental health included gender (P=0.020), age (P=0.002), time for staying in China (P=0.000) and degree (P=0.002). Multivariate analysis also further showed that gender (P=0.000), age (P=0.000) , the time for staying in China (P=0.000), perceived discrimination (P=0.002), fear (P=0.000), homesickness (P=0.000), culture shock (P=0.000), hostility (P=0.000) and the stress (P=0.000) had a significantly influence on mental health. Conclusions International medical students face a greater cross-cultural adaptation of the pressure, which had a significant impact on their mental health. International Student Management Office shall provide more help and psychological support for the international medical students, and establish the mechanism of management of students, establish feasible model of psychological health education. Key words: International students; Cross-cultural adaption; Mental health