Developing Culturally Responsive Programs to Promote International Student Adjustment: A Participatory Approach

International students in the United States face acculturative stress, yet few seek counseling. In this paper, we highlight a participatory approach to develop culturally and contextually competent programs to enhance international student adjustment and engagement. We combined findings from the Acc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international students 2018-10, Vol.8 (4), p.1865-1878
Main Authors: Johnson, Laura R, Seifen-Adkins, Tanja, Sandhu, Daya Singh, Arbles, Nadezda, Makino, Hitomi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Action research
Adjustment
Competence
Counseling
Counseling services
Educational aspects
Educational Research
Foreign students
Handbooks
Identification
Loneliness
Mental health
Methods
Multicultural education
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Psychology
Psychotherapy
Social adjustment
Social aspects
Social isolation
Stress
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Summary:International students in the United States face acculturative stress, yet few seek counseling. In this paper, we highlight a participatory approach to develop culturally and contextually competent programs to enhance international student adjustment and engagement. We combined findings from the Acculturative Stress Scale of International Students (ASSIS) with interviews eliciting international student concerns and ideas for programming. On the ASSIS, randomly selected international students (n=40) expressed high levels of acculturative stress. These students, along with key informants (n=5) and international student leaders (n=8) formed focus groups, and provided suggestions for programs. Based on these formative results, we developed and described a variety of programs. Our experiences with participatory approaches suggest a promising avenue for enhancing cultural and contextual competence in international student programming.
ISSN:2162-3104
2166-3750
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1468100