A study to identify and analyze international graduate students' adjustment problems at the University of Pittsburgh [electronic resource]
說明
175 p
附註
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-05, Section: A, page: 1153
Adviser: Seth J. Spaulding
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 1993
This study examined the adjustment problems of international graduate students attending the University of Pittsburgh and coping strategies and sources of help utilized by those students in their efforts to deal with the problems they face. Differences among students were examined by gender, age, marital status, and geographical region, academic level, major field, English proficiency, and sources of financial support. The data were collected using the Michigan International Student Problem Inventory (MISPI) and three additional open-ended questions. The sample comprised 293 international graduate students from 90 countries attending University of Pittsburgh in Spring term, 1993
The major findings of the study were: (1) international graduate students reported having the most difficulties in English language and financial aid of the eleven problem areas of the MISPI sub-scales; (2) female students experienced significantly more problems in the health services and the academic records areas than male counterparts; (3) there were significant differences among the students from the five geographical regions in all problem areas except placement services. European students reported fewer problems than the remaining four regional groups in all the problem areas; (4) in the admission-selection area, the students majoring in Humanities experienced significantly more problems than other groups; (5) master's students reported having significantly more problems than doctoral students in the admission-selection, academic records, social-personal, living-dining, and English language areas; (6) the students who had high English proficiency scores experienced significantly fewer problems than those who had low English proficiency scores; (7) the students sponsored by their home governments experienced significantly more problems with orientation services, academic records, social-personal, living-dining, religious services, and English language than respondents in other groups; (8) coping strategies utilized by international students in adjusting were: writing letters to home, telephone calls to home, speaking to Americans, finding close friendships, taking illegal off-campus jobs, and obtaining loans from friends; and (9) the family was the most helpful in solving their adjustment problems
