Rudakova Kira, Lal Shalini
School of Rehabilitation, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Youth Mental Health and Technology Lab, Research Centre, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 8;20(8):e0327812. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0327812. eCollection 2025.
The transition to higher education is a significant milestone for many individuals; however, it also brings new stressors and challenges, particularly for international students adjusting to life in a foreign country. Despite the increasing diversity of student populations globally, there remains a gap in existing reviews that capture the full scope of international student mental health concerns and needs. Existing reviews on the mental health and psychosocial adjustment of international students often concentrate on acculturation stress, thus overlooking other mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety, as well as positive mental health experiences like increased well-being. Meanwhile, other reviews tend to focus more heavily on specific regions, such as the United States and Australia, or student populations, particularly East-Asian students. While valuable, this focus may limit our understanding of the diverse mental health experiences of international students.
The objective of this scoping review is to map and summarize research on international students' mental health experiences and concerns (e.g., depression) as well as factors influencing their well-being (e.g., social support and institutional resources).
A search strategy guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual of Evidence Synthesis has been developed according to the Population, Concern, and Context (PCC) framework and will be applied to four electronic databases (i.e., MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and CINAHL). Two reviewers will pilot the selection strategy on subsets of 10 articles until a 90% agreement rate is achieved. Once this rate is reached, a single reviewer will screen the remaining articles independently. Two reviewers will pilot data extraction on subsets of 10 included studies, after which one reviewer will proceed independently. Main findings will be presented through descriptive statistics, using tables and figures.
This scoping review will assess existing literature on the mental health needs and experiences of international students, highlighting overlooked issues, such as challenges beyond acculturation stress and the experiences of underrepresented student populations, including those studying outside of Western countries. Ultimately, the findings may identify areas for further research and inform educational institutions and mental health professionals in developing support resources that can effectively address diverse needs of international students.
对于许多人来说，向高等教育的过渡是一个重要的里程碑；然而，这也带来了新的压力源和挑战，特别是对于适应异国生活的国际学生而言。尽管全球学生群体日益多样化，但现有的综述仍存在差距，未能全面涵盖国际学生的心理健康问题和需求。现有的关于国际学生心理健康和社会心理适应的综述往往集中在文化适应压力上，从而忽视了其他心理健康问题，如抑郁和焦虑，以及诸如幸福感增强等积极的心理健康体验。与此同时，其他综述往往更侧重于特定地区，如美国和澳大利亚，或特定学生群体，特别是东亚学生。虽然这种关注很有价值，但可能会限制我们对国际学生多样化心理健康体验的理解。
本范围综述的目的是梳理和总结关于国际学生心理健康体验和问题（如抑郁）以及影响其幸福感的因素（如社会支持和机构资源）的研究。
根据人口、关注问题和背景（PCC）框架制定了由乔安娜·布里格斯研究所（JBI）证据综合手册指导的检索策略，并将应用于四个电子数据库（即MEDLINE、Embase、PsycInfo和CINAHL）。两名评审员将对10篇文章的子集进行筛选策略试点，直至达成90%的一致率。一旦达到该比率，将由一名评审员独立筛选其余文章。两名评审员将对10篇纳入研究的子集进行数据提取试点，之后由一名评审员独立进行。主要研究结果将通过描述性统计，以表格和图表形式呈现。
本范围综述将评估关于国际学生心理健康需求和体验的现有文献，突出被忽视的问题，如文化适应压力之外的挑战以及代表性不足的学生群体的经历，包括那些在西方国家以外学习的学生。最终，研究结果可能会确定进一步研究的领域，并为教育机构和心理健康专业人员提供信息，以开发能够有效满足国际学生多样化需求的支持资源。
