Research

Fostering Better Mental Health for CMU International Asian Students

Meeting with CaPS Representative Viviana | Feb. 14th, 2020

Viviana is an outreach coordinator and therapist at CMU CaPS (Counseling and Psychological Services). We interviewed her about her perspective on the issue of mental health regarding Asian international students.

Key Areas Emphasized: CONNECTION, BELONGING, LONELINESS

Problems to Note:

• Personal struggles, missing friends, food, and family. Especially applies to students from places very different from the US. Students tend to end up comparing and experiencing cultural differences.
• Students also talk about the weather a lot. The sun does not come out here, Pittsburgh feels grey.
• Undergrads from overseas tend to have a sense of excitement when coming from abroad and have a mindset of experiencing "movie portrayed" college experience. -->Some feel sad when reality not meeting/matching up with their original expectations.
• Want to find a sense of belongingness but may actually ended up feeling even more isolated.

Insights:

• Matching Students from Same Nationality/Hometown?: Students who miss home want to connect from other students who come from the same place. Once that happens, then people feel they belong to a group. International students do not feel like they belong here. They deal with a lot of loneliness. They want to find a friend from the same country. The flip side is that that line of thinking can isolate you more. If you don’t find that friend, then you feel even more isolated. But if I tell you that I am lonely, then you can understand that even if you are not from the same country.
• No Single Solution or Way to Address Problem is Applicable for Everyone: Encourage them to do what they think is best for them. Try everything out. Don’t want to say different background friends or similar background friends are better for mental health.
• Social Media Fantasy: Social media does not connect people more. Nothing beats one on one interaction. Then we get further from talking away to other. A design intervention would be one on one. Face to face connecting with others.
• Suggest Us to Build “One-On-One” Connections: Therapy context is very different. If someone is not being open, it can be due to so many different things. You need to be patient, because they come here for the first time. Trust builds through time. Explore why and what is in the way to get people to be open.

Coffee Meeting with Kate | Feb. 9th, 2020

Kate is a CMU alumni who did a capstone project that connects closely to ours. She chose to to tackle the issue of mental health from a faculty to student perspective. A faculty member would get trained by a CaPS therapist to identify students in need of help, and then speak to them in a way that shows their empathy.

1. Speak to CaPS representatives: Moe Daisy Morales, CMU Cares

Suggested Research Methods

• Start by mapping out our own personal experiences
• Competitive Analysis with other schools
• Personas but with caution: personas do not represent a real person but a culmination of people.
• People Observation
• Survey/Interview with target audience
• Stakeholder map
• McCarthy Learning Cycle

• Who, What, Why, So What, How

Possible Solutions to Explore

• On-boarding buddy assigned to freshmen
• AI that matches mentor to mentee
• Wall Workshop with a focus group
• Look into non-psychiatric mental health improvement methods

Asian Diaspora Experience Survey | Feb. 5th, 2020

We created a survey containing 13 questions in hopes of gaining a better understanding of Asian American's experiences in the United States and their view of their cultural identity. The survey was sent out to Asian American students at CMU.

Survey Questions:

1. How uncomfortable do you feel about your asian culture in America?
2. At what time in your life did you experience the most confusion with your own cultural identity?
3. Have you ever tried to cover up your asian culture in America as a means to assimilate?
4. Have you ever felt uncomfortable with your American culture when in Asia?
5. Do you feel pressured to date within your own race?
6. Have you ever felt embarrassed to bring your own Asian food?
7. To what extent are western stereotypes about Asians harmful?
8. Do you prefer one of your cultures over the other?
9. Would you visit your heritage country, and why?
10. Has anyone ever used your nationality (international vs. non international) to make judgements about you?
11. To what extend is your asian culture important to you?
12. To what extend do you feel connected to both sides of your culture?
13. Do you feel that Asians have it better than other minorities in the US?

Survey Insights:

• Asian students tend to feel either fairly comfortable or fairly uncomfortable about their Asian culture (Responses are all towards the two ends, none in the middle)
• Feeling confusion with your own cultural identity spread across all ages and life periods (Middle school, high school, first year of college, upperclassmen in college, post-graduate)
• 38.5% of respondents have personal experiences in which they tried to cover up their Asian identity
• 30.8% of respondents felt somewhat uncomfortable with their American culture when in Aisa
• Most respondents tend to not feel pressured to date within their own race nor embarrassed to bring Asian food to school environments
• All except 1 respondent find western stereotypes about Asians harmful
• 46.2% of respondents prefer one of their culture over the other
• 92.3% of respondents are interested in visiting their heritage country
• 69.2% of respondents find their Asian culture to be VERY important to them