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(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 inter_dom LIKE '%Inter%'
GROUP BY stay
ORDER BY stay DESC;De acuerdo a los resuldos arrojados por la consulta podemos observar lo siguiente:
- Los puntajes de la prueba PHQ-9 se clasifican de la siguiente manera: por lo que podemos concluir que los estudiantes con una estadia de 1 a 7 años presentan bajo riesgo de depresion, sin embargo, a partir del octavo año seria importante monitorear a los estudiantes ya que se muestra que presentan cuadros depresivos moderados, de igual forma es importante mantener las pruebas de forma anual ya que se observa una tendencia positiva en los promedios del PHQ-9.
- Los puntajes de la prueba SCS muestran un promedio alto en cada grupo de estadia por lo que se puede concluir que los estudiantes en promedio no se sienten conectados con su ambiente social. https://youthrex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-Social-Connectedness-Scale-Revised.pdf
- Los promedios de la prueba ASSIS muestra que los estudiantes en general tienen dificultados para desarrollarse en un nuevo entorno social.