Apr 20th, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Title
International Students’ Awareness and Use of Counseling Services
Faculty Mentor
Information
Although differences between domestic and international students’ sources of academic stress, awareness and use of counseling services have been studied extensively, less attention has been devoted to the impact of unawareness and under utilization of counseling services on international students’ academic stress. In addition, little is known about the relation between academic stress and psychological adaptation in international students. Data was collected from 62 international students at a large public university in the Rocky Mountain region. Academic stress was measured by stressful life events. Psychological adaptation measured tension, depression, anger, vigor, confusion, and fatigue. Use of counseling services measured awareness, use, and willingness to see a counselor. As predicted, results showed a significant difference in academic stress between international students who are aware of counseling services and those who are not aware. In addition, international students who reported higher levels of academic stress also reported poorer psychological adaptation.