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) |
students-- Original exercise here
SELECT
stay AS stay,
COUNT(inter_dom) 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 students.inter_dom = 'Inter'
GROUP BY stay
ORDER BY stay DESC
LIMIT 9;Lets determine if the calculated average metrics can help us prevent suicide in international students:
-- Finding out if a set of metrics can help prevent suicide in international students
SELECT stay AS stay, COUNT(inter_dom) AS count_int, ROUND(AVG(todep), 2) AS average_phq, ROUND(AVG(tosc), 2) AS average_scs, ROUND(AVG(toas), 2) AS average_as, suicide AS life_ended
FROM students
WHERE students.inter_dom = 'Inter' AND toas < 92
GROUP BY stay, suicide
ORDER BY stay DESC;No conclusion so far, the current state of the metrics cannot predict whether a person will end their life or not. However if we obtain Minimum and Maximum values we find the following:
-- Adding more metrics:
SELECT suicide AS life_ended,
COUNT(gender) AS gender_count,
gender,
ROUND(MAX(todep), 2) AS max_phq,
ROUND(MIN(todep), 2) AS min_phq,
ROUND(MAX(tosc), 2) AS max_scs,
ROUND(MIN(tosc), 2) AS min_scs,
ROUND(MAX(toas), 2) AS max_as,
ROUND(MIN(toas), 2) AS min_as
FROM students
WHERE students.inter_dom = 'Inter'
GROUP BY gender, suicide
ORDER BY life_ended DESC;Can we conclude that those individuals with a phq score of 6, shall receive psycological treatment to avoid suicide? Lets explore some more metrics: