Wilczewski Michał, Gorbaniuk Oleg, Giuri Paola
Faculty of Applied Linguistics, Institute of Specialised and Intercultural Communication, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Department of Management, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2021 Apr 9;12:644096. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644096. eCollection 2021.
This study explored the psychological and academic effects of studying online from the home vis-à-vis host country during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the experience of international students at the University of Warsaw, Poland. A total of 357 international students from 62 countries (236 in the host country and 121 in the home country) completed an online questionnaire survey 2 months after transition to online learning. We studied students' levels of loneliness, life and academic satisfaction, acculturative stress, academic adjustment, performance, loyalty, and perceptions of the online learning experience. The country-of-residence variable had no statistically significant effects on most psychological and academic variables. Significant effects were observed only for two academic variables. Specifically, students who returned to the home country found online communication with other students more contributing to their online learning experience and exhibited higher academic adjustment than students who remained in the host country. This suggests the positive influence of (peer and familial) support on online learning experience from the home country. Furthermore, a significant difference in experiencing acculturative stress occurred for students in quarantine/self-isolation in the host country, which expands prior literature on the disruptive effects of social distancing on students' mental health. Finally, this study confirmed the expected increased levels of loneliness among self-isolating students in both countries, hence extending prior results to the home- and host-country contexts. No relationship between self-isolation and students' life or academic satisfaction was found, which is explained by the specific nature of the learning-from-home experience.
本研究探讨了在2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行期间，波兰华沙大学的国际学生在本国与东道国进行线上学习的心理和学业影响。共有来自62个国家的357名国际学生（236名在东道国，121名在本国）在过渡到线上学习2个月后完成了一项在线问卷调查。我们研究了学生的孤独程度、生活和学业满意度、文化适应压力、学业适应、成绩、忠诚度以及对线上学习体验的看法。居住国变量对大多数心理和学业变量没有统计学上的显著影响。仅在两个学业变量上观察到显著影响。具体而言，回到本国的学生发现与其他学生的线上交流对他们的线上学习体验更有帮助，并且比留在东道国的学生表现出更高的学业适应能力。这表明（同伴和家庭）支持对本国线上学习体验有积极影响。此外，在东道国处于隔离/自我隔离状态的学生在经历文化适应压力方面存在显著差异，这扩展了先前关于社交距离对学生心理健康的破坏作用 的文献。最后，本研究证实了预期的两国自我隔离学生孤独感增加的情况，从而将先前的结果扩展到本国和东道国背景。未发现自我隔离与学生的生活或学业满意度之间存在关联，这可以通过在家学习体验的特殊性来解释。
