Mental health help-seeking intentions among Chinese international students in the U.S. higher education system: The role of coping self-efficacy, social support, and stigma for seeking psychological help.

Abstract

This study investigated the mental health help-seeking intentions and its correlates among Chinese international students in the U.S. higher education system. An analytic cross-sectional study was conducted. Recruitment of participants occurred via a social media campaign, and participants were invited to complete an online anonymous survey. A total of 222 Chinese international students participated in the study. The majority of the participants were female (65.3%), graduate students (84.7%), and the only child in the family (83.8%). The participants had a mean age of 23.75 years old. When encountering mental health-related problems, participants reported the highest help-seeking intentions for an intimate partner, parent, and friend. A higher level of general mental health help-seeking intentions was associated with a higher level of coping self-efficacy, a higher level of social support, a lower level of stigma, being undergraduate students, and having no history of full-time employment. These findings indicated the preferred sources for mental health help seeking and the need to improve the general mental health help seeking among Chinese international students. Culturally tailored programs are needed that take into consideration Chinese cultural attitudes and beliefs with regard to mental and emotional symptoms of distress.

“I Have Been a Sojourner in a Foreign Land”: A Qualitative Inquiry on the Psychological Experiences of International Students Enrolled in a Christian University

“…Overall, our third domain revealed the critical role of social support in the lives of international students enrolled in a Christian university. This finding is consistent with prior literature that has shown that social support is pivotal to international students’ welfare and contentment during their time in the United States (Lian et al, 2020).…”

A Bibliometric Review of Research on International Students’ Mental Health: Science Mapping of the Literature from 1957 to 2020

“…Secondly, the newer keywords on the science mapping also showed a stronger emphasis on modern issues that students are facing during their study: the focus on changes in the environment and behavioral problems such as problematic social media use [ 2 , 92 , 93 ], social drinking and gambling [ 38 ], [ 90 , 94 ] has increased in recent years. Environmental changes and adaptation problems such as COVID-19 [ 9 , 91 , 95 ], coping strategies [ 96 , 97 , 98 ], and homesickness [ 68 , 99 ] are also being emphasized. It can also be noticed that, in contrast to the purple nodes, which clustered around the top of the map, the light green nodes were distributed evenly around the map.…”

Evidence to Practice for Mental Health Task-Sharing: Understanding Readiness for Change among Accredited Social Health Activists in Sehore District, Madhya Pradesh, India

“…However, they occasionally felt helpless owing to the prevalent mental health stigma and mistrust against the public health system in the community. While public-and self-stigma have been previously found to impact self-efficacy among those suffering from a mental illness (Jahn et al, 2020;Lian et al, 2020), this needs to be further studied among mental health care providers. Secondly, the trainings helped ASHAs garner knowledge and skills to undertake mental health task-sharing-related tasks, and receiving support from their supervisors enhanced their efficacy.…”