A group psychological intervention to enhance the coping and acculturation of international students

Abstract

There is a shortage of psychological interventions to aid the acculturation of international students. To address this issue, the present study developed and trialled a brief group psychological intervention, the STAR programme: Strengths, transitions, adjustments, and resilience. This programme was developed using suggestions from international students and university professional and academic staff that had significant dealings and designated roles to support international students. It comprises of four weekly 2-hour sessions, and is experiential and cognitive–behavioural in nature. The STAR programme aims to enhance coping, which is predicted to subsequently improve psychological adaptation (an acculturation outcome). Sixteen international students participated in the pilot trial of the STAR programme. The participants completed measures on coping self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, psychological adaptation, and psychological distress pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 1-month follow-up. Results showed that participants’ psychological adaptation and coping self-efficacy significantly increased from pre to post, with the treatment gain maintained at the 1-month follow-up for psychological adaptation. Increases in social self-efficacy were evident, but these did not reach significance, possibly due to a lack of power. The STAR programme did not have an impact on psychological distress; however, participants were only minimally distressed at the commencement of the programme. The qualitative feedback gathered from the participants, provided suggestions for further refinement, as well as information about the clinical utility of the STAR programme.

Keywords:

• international student
• psychological intervention
• coping
• acculturation