A Japanese international university surveyed its students in 2018 and found that international students have a higher risk of mental health difficulties than the general population. The study also indicated that social connectedness (belonging to a social group) and acculturative stress (stress associated with joining a new culture) are predictive of depression.
I used this data to answer the following questions:
Is the length of stay a contributing factor? Is gender related to a higher risk of mental illness? Is religion related to better indicators/metrics?
- The numbers show us that the more years the student spends, the higher their score on the PHQ test (depression).
- The score of social connectedness (SCS test) decreases as the student spends more years at the university.
- Acculturative stress (ASISS test) also decreases over the years.
Yes, the data shows that women are more likely to experience mental health difficulties than men
The data shows that individuals who do not follow a religion have higher scores on the PHQ-9 test and the acculturative stress test. Conversely, individuals who follow a religion have a higher score on the social connectedness test, suggesting that religion may be a positive factor in this context.
