Does going to university in a different country affect your mental health? A Japanese international university surveyed its students in 2018 and published a study the following year that was approved by several ethical and regulatory boards.
The study found that international students have a higher risk of mental health difficulties than the general population, and that social connectedness (belonging to a social group) and acculturative stress (stress associated with joining a new culture) are predictive of depression.
Explore the students data using PostgreSQL to find out if you would come to a similar conclusion for international students and see if the length of stay is a contributing factor.
Here is a data description of the columns you may find helpful.
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
inter_dom | Types of students (international or domestic) |
japanese_cate | Japanese language proficiency |
english_cate | English language proficiency |
academic | Current academic level (undergraduate or graduate) |
age | Current age of student |
stay | Current length of stay in years |
todep | Total score of depression (PHQ-9 test) |
tosc | Total score of social connectedness (SCS test) |
toas | Total score of acculturative stress (ASISS test) |
-- Run this code to view the data in students
SELECT *
FROM students;-- Start coding here...
SELECT stay,
COUNT(*) AS count_int,
ROUND(AVG(todep),2) AS average_phq,
ROUND(AVG(tosc),2) AS average_scs,
ROUND(AVG(toas),2) AS average_as
FROM students
WHERE inter_dom ='Inter'
GROUP BY STAY
ORDER BY stay DESC;
The data is showing an increasement for the average PHQ over the years for international and domestic students.
That being said the length of stay is in relation to the increasment of the average_phq but not relational to the origin of the students.
In this case it would be interesting, to compare data with general population to find out whether there is a dependency on being a student.
Average_phq <> stay - intern students
Average_phq <> stay - domestic students
SELECT COUNT(*) AS count_int, MAX(todep) AS max_phq, MIN(todep) AS min_phq, ROUND(AVG(todep),2) AS average_phq, stay
FROM students
WHERE inter_dom ='Dom'
GROUP by stay
ORDER BY stay DESC;