Can We Prevent Maladjustment in International Students?

More than 10,000 international students are currently enrolled at McGill University. With such a significant proportion of the student body being international students, and the abundance of resources on campus, one can assume that they are able to integrate well into the lifestyle and culture that Montreal has to offer… Right?

According to Student Psychological Wellbeing at McGill University report (DiGenova & Romano, 2014), a higher proportion of international students (59%) reported feeling anxious compared to Canadian students (48%). Similarly, 82% of international students reported experiencing social anxiety compared to 71% of Canadian students, and 42% of international students reported experiencing family distress compared to 36% of Canadian students. The survey instrument was based on the Mental Health and Counselling Benchmark Study (CMHB), comprised of demographic questions and 62 items from the Counselling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS-62). Locke, Buzolitz, Lei, et al. (2001) demonstrated that the CCAPS-62 possesses construct validity and subscale reliabilities.

The problem with the CCAPS-62 is that researchers examine the point in time wherein the student faces school maladjustment. Surely, they can receive help through various resources offered by McGill University; however, is it possible that we reduce these numbers by intervening as soon as the student starts their first few days at McGill University?

One way to overcome the challenges of adjustment to school life and a new culture for international students is to implement a prevention mechanism through administering the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), to understand the level of adjustment to university life and identifying the problems of certain students.

The SACQ is a standardized questionnaire that is used as a screening mechanism to identify problems early in the student’s university life. The SACQ provides guidelines for interventions as a next step as well. It is a 67-item, self-report questionnaire that can be administered in a short period of 15 to 20 minutes. An advantage of the test is that it can be easily accessible to students; it can be directly mailed to the students and then returned to be scored. The SACQ is standardized based on a sample of 1,300 female and male freshmen students in college. Students with low scores can be interviewed for a follow-up in order to guide them through a clear intervention that will possibly help them adjust to school better than without intervention. Level B of qualification (i.e., a bachelor’s degree in psychology or related field) is required to administer the test.

Crede and Niehorster (2012) examined numerous studies using the SACQ and found that proper adjustment to university predicts grades and university retention. They also report that adjustment to university is correlated with individual traits, social support, and parental relationships with the student. The authors found inter-rater reliability to be r=0.994 for 744 studies that used the SACQ. The overall reliability for the constructs in the SACQ (academic, social, personal-emotional, and institutional attachment) was reported to be r=0.96. A limitation that the authors noted was that discriminant validity between social adjustment and institutional adjustment was difficult to evaluate because the same item was used to score these constructs.

By administering the SACQ, we could be able to screen incoming international students for adjustment to university, and also for academic adjustment, personal-emotional adjustment, social adjustment and attachment to McGill. We would be able to identify challenges and problems early in their university lives, and thus intervene if needed before they become too overwhelmed with anxiety, social interactions and family connectedness. Because the test only requires someone of Level B to administer it and because it only takes 20 minutes to complete, the SACQ can be conveniently administered to a large sample of international students. The use of this standardized questionnaire may save potential students at risk, time — as well as effort, and the number of individuals who deal with long waits to see a counsellor at McGill Mental Health might even be reduced.

Works consulted

Crede M, & Niehorster S. “Adjustment to college as measured by the student adaptation to college questionnaire: A quantitative review of its structure and relationships with correlates and consequences.” Educational Psychology Review. March, 2012. 24(1): 133–165. Print.

Genova D. L, & Romano V. Student psychological wellbeing at McGill University: A report of findings from the Counselling and Mental Health Benchmark Study.