Differences between Arab and non-Arab students

There were found to be profound variations between Arab students and other international students in Australia. Whilst the majorities of Arabs are sponsored and have no desire to stay in a Western country permanently, many of the Asian students are self-funded and see their study in Australia as an opportunity for migration and their future (Shepherd & Rane, 2012).

Many barriers confronted students when they attempted to learn and improve their English language. These obstacles included their worries and lack of communication in the classroom with mixed genders, which might influence negatively on their progress in learning the new language. From this it may be concluded that students might try to avoid interaction with the other gender in their classes resulting in a lost opportunity for developing and improving their language processing skills. The study conducted by Alhazmi (2010) revealed that the biggest challenges encountered by Saudi students in Australia were in connection with the transition from gender-separated environments in their home country to co-educational institutions in the host country. This has also been an issue for Emirati students attending Western universities (Renn, Karafyllis, Hohlt, & Taube, 2015).

A research paper presented by Robertson, Line, Jones, and Thomas (2000) concluded in their study that the majority of non-Arab students have little confidence in their verbal performance while studying in Australia. They suggested that living abroad with their families and children, coping, culture stress and language were the main challenges still faced by non-Arab students. However, the main language obstacle for Arab students relates not to verbal communication, but to written communications (Javid & Umer, 2014). Yet that is not to say that Arab students do not also face anxieties when faced with verbal communications in an English-speaking environment (Al-Sibai, 2005); this is especially seen in Arab women, when confronted with a mixed class, as they have been conditioned not to interact with males (Altamimi, 2014).

In addition, another study conducted by Lin,Wang, Lin, & Lee (2011) showed that many Far East and African students face several challenges involving copying flexibility and social support to adjust in the new surroundings. However, Al-Sibai (2005) found that non-Arab students adjust rapidly to the new environment when social support counseling works effectively and supports self-efficacy for the student to adjust; she recommends that Arab

students also need to find a way to adjust rapidly in order to be able to make the most of their opportunities.

Alazzi and Chiodo’s (2006) study found that Arab students tended to identify personal events as stressful and dealt with such stress by treating the actual symptoms associated with this stress; this was supported by Schwartz’s (1988) study of Saudi Arabian students, where he found Arab students responded to personal stress. Schwartz (1988) also found that Chinese students were more likely to find academic events more stressful, whilst American students were more stressed by interpersonal events, indicating that there are definite cultural divisions in perceptions of stress. Coping strategies such as religious support, and consulting family members and friends were used by the Arab students, but in many cases they managed to live by accepting their problem and finding solutions themselves (Alazzi & Chiodo, 2006). It can be seen that there are a number of strategies that can be predictive of psychological health, but that some of these strategies may be influenced by cultural preferences. This study is therefore setting out to explore the differences in these cultural approaches and to investigate areas where there may also be similarities. It can be concluded that the previous studies dealt with Arab and non-Arab students in terms of examining numerous psychosocial factors and their association with mental health with specific ethnic groupings; however, the current study addresses the comparison between international students and British students in investigating and exploring psychosocial variables in relationship with mental health.

2.4.2 British students

A recent survey carried out by the University of Southampton and Solent NHS Trust (Richardson, Elliott, Roberts, & Jansen, 2016) indicated that British students who experience financial difficulties and concern about debt have an increased probability of suffering from psychological problems. Additionally, the study showed that female British students demonstrate larger probability of suffering from mental health difficulties than their male counterparts, as well as having a higher probability of developing issues, compared to British male students. The study also linked depression, worry, and eating disorders as the three main difficulties that both genders encounter at different levels of study at university, today. Furthermore, the study revealed that concern has emerged in previous studies that British students are either not conscious of, or are failing to utilise, mental health services at their institutions. However, their study found 75% of the participants were aware of their

Numerous studies carried out across a number of universities in the UK found that in female British students there are higher prevalence rates of depression than in male British students (Quince, Wood, Parker, & Benson, 2012). However, studies carried out by Spinhoven and Kooiman (1997), van Wijk and van Selow (1999), and Doherty and Kartalova-O’Doherty (2010) revealed that female British students are more likely to report psychological distress and physical impairment than their counterpart British male students; in addition, the females attempted to seek and benefit from medical help (Doherty & Kartalova-O’Doherty, 2010), although it is only rarely that gender differences have been recognised in illness behaviour. In their study, Piccinelli and Wilkinson (2000)), found that British female students did not reveal reporting moderate symptoms on the mental health measure, while (Piccinelli & Wilkinson, 2000) and Cantwell, Archer, and Bourke (1997) found that British students of both genders under-reported psychological symptoms. This may be due to lack of access to medical provision (Task Group, 2016). The current study deals with the comparison among international students and British students through an investigation between the psychosocial variables and mental health; much has been explored about British students or ethnic students, but few comparisons have been made.