Are international students relatively resilient? Comparing international and domestic students’ levels of self-compassion, mental health and wellbeing

Abstract

Because international students encounter unique stressors in addition to those experienced by all higher education students they are often assumed to be at heightened risk for experiencing mental health difficulties. However, empirical studies have consistently found that international students report comparable or lower rates of depression and anxiety than their domestic counterparts. The present study investigates one possible explanation for these unexpected results: are international students relatively resilient? More particularly, we investigate self-compassion (SC)–an emotion-regulation strategy known to buffer the impact of stressors on mental health. While SC has been associated with positive psycho-social outcomes in the higher education context, existing studies have not disaggregated international and domestic students. The present study addresses that gap by comparing the levels and estimating the effects of SC among international and domestic students. Analyses found that international students on average reported significantly higher SC than their domestic counterparts. Without the protection afforded by those higher levels of SC, we estimated that international students would report higher psychological distress and lower psychological wellbeing than domestic students. Implications for fostering and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all higher education students are discussed.