Abstract
The number of postgraduate students from Mainland China who study in foreign universities has increased significantly in the past decade. Some of these Chinese postgraduate students opt to study in other Chinese countries and cities, like Macau, partly with the belief that doing so would require less cultural adjustment. Our chapter inquires into factors related to self-reported mental health in a sample of Mainland Chinese postgraduate students in Macau, and the results indicate that higher levels of acculturative stress (but not academic stress) are associated with poorer mental health – results that call attention to the need to conceptualize cultural experience and adjustment beyond notions of ethnicity and race. The results also show how psychological resilience is associated with better mental health. The results are discussed with references to the importance of culture in understanding Asian learners well-being.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Banks, M. H., Clegg, C. W., Jackson, P. R., Kemp, N. J., Stafford, E. M., & Wall, T. D. (1980). The use of the general health questionnaire as an indicator of mental health in occupational studies. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 53, 187–194.
Barrett, P. M., Sonderegger, R., & Xenos, S. (2003). Using friends to combat anxiety and adjustment problems among young migrants to Australia: A national trial. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 8(2), 241–260.
Bernardo, A. B. I., & Liem, G. A. D. (2013). Mapping the spaces of cross-cultural educational psychology. In G. A. D. Liem & A. B. I. Bernardo (Eds.), Advancing cross-cultural perspectives on educational psychology: A Festschrift for Dennis M. McInerney (pp. 345–357). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publications.
Constantine, M. G., Anderson, G. M., Berkel, L. A., Caldwell, L. D., & Utsey, S. O. (2005). Examining the cultural adjustment experiences of African international college students: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 57–66.
Constantine, M. G., Okazaki, S., & Utsey, S. O. (2004). Self-concealment, social self-efficacy, acculturative stress, and depression in African, Asian, and Latin American international college students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74(3), 230–241.
Fleer, J., Hoekstra, H. J., Sleijer, D. T., Tuinman, M. A., & Hoekstra-Weebers, J. E. H. M. (2006). The role of meaning in the prediction of psychological well-being of testicular cancer survivor. Quality of Life Research, 15, 705–717.
Gambone, M. A., & Arbreton, A. J. A. (1997). Safe havens: The contributions of youth organizations to healthy adolescent development. Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures.
Goldberg, D. P., Gater, R., Sartorius, N., Üstün, T. B., Piccinelli, M., Gureje, O., et al. (1997). The validity of two versions of the GHQ in the WHO study of mental illness in general health care. Psychological Medicine, 27, 191–197.
Grotberg, H. E. (2003). Resilience for today: Gaining strength from adversity. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Hagerty, B. M., Williams, R. A., Coyne, J. C., & Early, M. R. (1996). Sense of belonging and indicators of social and psychological functioning. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 10, 235–244.
Hagerty, B. M. K., Lynch-Sauer, J., Patusky, K., Bouwsema, M., & Collier, P. (1992). Sense of belonging: A vital mental health concept. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 6, 172–177.
Hull, W. F. (1978). Foreign students in the United States of America: Coping behavior within the educational environment. New York: Praeger.
Hwang, H. C., & Matsumoto, D. (2013). Culture and educational psychology. In G. A. D. Liem & A. B. I. Bernardo (Eds.), Advancing cross-cultural perspectives on educational psychology: A Festschrift for Dennis M. McInerney (pp. 21–37). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publications.
Joiner, T. E., Jr., & Walker, R. L. (2002). Construct validity of a measure of acculturative stress in African Americans. Psychological Assessment, 14(4), 462–466.
Kim, K. I., Won, H., Liu, X., Liu, P., & Kitanashi, K. (1997). Students’ stress in China, Japan, and Korea: A trans-cultural study. The International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 43, 87–94.
King, R. B., & Watkins, D. A. (2013). Cultivating a “cultural imagination” in school motivation research: Recommendations for moving forward. In G. A. D. Liem & A. B. I. Bernardo (Eds.), Advancing cross-cultural perspectives on educational psychology: A Festschrift for Dennis M. McInerney (pp. 59–86). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publications.
Konstam, V., Holmes, W., Wilczenski, F., Baliga, S., Lester, J., & Priest, R. (2003). Meaning in the lives of caregivers of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 10(1), 17–25.
Li, M., & Bray, M. (2007). Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push–pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Higher Education, 53, 791–818.
Lu, D. (1998). Facing dilemmas: Chinese students in the United States: 1979–1989. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Oregon.
Masten, A. S., & Reed, M. G. J. (2002). Resilience in development. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Michaud, P. A. (2006). Adolescents and risks: Why not change our paradigm? Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 481–483.
Nesdale, D., Rooney, R., & Smith, L. (1997). Migrant ethnic identity and psychological distress. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28, 569–588.
Osterman, K. F. (2000). Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70(3), 323–367.
Pan, J. Y., Yue, X., & Chan, C. L. W. (2010). Development and validation of the Acculturative Hassles Scale for Chinese Students (AHSCS): An example of mainland Chinese university students in Hong Kong. Psychologia, 53(3), 163–178.
Recker, G. T., & Wong, P. T. P. (1988). Aging as an individual process: Toward a theory of personal meaning. In J. E. Birrer & V. L. Bengtson (Eds.), Emergent theories of aging (pp. 214–246). New York: Springer.
Rocha-Singh, I. A. (1994). Perceived stress among graduate students: Development and validation of the Graduate Stress Inventory. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54(3), 714–727.
Shen, B. J., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2001). A structural model of acculturation and mental health status among Chinese Americans. American Journal of Community Psychology, 29(3), 387–418.
Stecker, T. (2004). Well-being in an academic environment. Medical Education, 38, 465–478.
Swagler, M. A., & Ellis, M. V. (2003). Crossing the distance: Adjustment of Taiwanese graduate students in the United States. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50, 420–437.
Tong, T. S., Ku, L., & Zaroff, C. M. (2014). The influence of culture-specific variables as protective factors in adolescents at risk for juvenile delinquency. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. Published online November 2014, doi: 10.1177/0306624X14556609.
Wagnild, G. M., & Young, H. M. (1993). Development and psychometric evaluation of the resilience scale. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 1, 165–178.
Wan, T. Y., Chapman, D. W., & Biggs, D. A. (1992). Academic stress of international students attending U. S. universities. Research in Higher Education, 33, 607–623.
Wang, L. H., & Byram, M. (2011). ‘But when you are doing your exams it is the same as in China’ – Chinese students adjusting to western approaches to teaching and learning. Cambridge Journal of Education, 41, 407–424.
Wong, P. T. P. (1998). Implicit theories of meaningful life and the development of the personal meaning profile. In P. T. P. Wong & P. S. Fry (Eds.), The human quest for meaning: A handbook of psychological research and clinical application (pp. 111–140). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Wong, D. F. K., Yan, P., Lo, E., & Hung, M. (2003). Mental health and social competence of mainland Chinese immigrant and local youth in Hong Kong: A comparison. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 12(1), 85–110.
Xu, J. (2002). Chinese students’ adaptation to learning in an American university: A multiple case study. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Nebraska.
Yang, T. Y. (2010). Stress, coping, and psychological well-being: Comparison among American and Asian international graduate students from Taiwan, China, and South Korea. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Kansas.
Yeh, C. J., & Inose, M. (2003). International students’ reported English fluency, social support satisfaction, and social connectedness as predictors of acculturative stress. Counseling and Psychology Quarterly, 16, 15–28.
Zaroff, C. M., Wong, H. L., Ku, L., & Van Schalkwyk, G. (2014). Interpersonal stress, not depression or hopelessness, predicts suicidality in university students in Macao. Australasian Psychiatry, 22, 127–131.
Zaroff, C., Davis, J., Chio, P., & Madhavan, D. (2012). Somatic presentations of distress in China. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 46, 1053–1057.
Zhou, Y. F., & Todman, J. (2009). Patterns of adaptation of Chinese postgraduate students in the United Kingdom. University of Dundee Journal of Studies in International Education, 13, 467–486.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dong, Y.T., Bernardo, A.B.I., Zaroff, C.M. (2016). Stress, Positive Psychological Resources, and Mental Health of Migrant Chinese Postgraduate Students in Macau. In: King, R., Bernardo, A. (eds) The Psychology of Asian Learners. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-576-1_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-576-1_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-287-575-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-287-576-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)