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.
In this project, I will explore the students data using PostgreSQL to find out if I will 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.
| 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
LIMIT 9;-- analyze the students data to see how the length of stay (stay) impacts the average mental health diagnostic scores of the international students present in the study.
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
HAVING stay IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY stay DESC
---return 9 rows
LIMIT 9From the table about, we see that International students in the study appear to experience increasing levels of depression the longer they stay in the foreign country. While social connectedness doesn't seem to be strongly impacted by the length of stay, acculturative stress remains a persistent issue. The significant decline in the number of international students staying beyond 5 years, coupled with the sharp rise in depression suggests that prolonged stays can exacerbate mental health struggles. This highlights the importance of targeted mental health interventions for long-term international students and suggests that some may choose to leave earlier due to these difficulties. Maintaining social connectedness and providing support for acculturative stress could be critical in retaining the well-being of those who remain for extended periods.