Executive Summary
College can be a very stressful time in any young person’s life. For many, it is the first time away from the familiar comforts of home, parents, and family support. The need to make social contacts, gain new knowledge and test writing, and combine study with work to cover basic needs can put psychological pressure on the individual. The spectrum of predictors of stress turns out to be much broader and can include cultural aspects of the student. In particular, research demonstrates that for students from immigrant families, the need to join and adjust to a new culture can be a negative factor leading to suicidal ideation (Lane & Miranda, 2018).
The authors collected a sample of 152 college students who were from first or second-generation migrant families and measured depression and anxiety through a questionnaire survey. For families arriving in the U.S. from other countries, there may be an expectation that their children will receive a quality education and be able to socialize professionally and personally, which places additional demands on the individual and causes pressure. The relationship between family life satisfaction and psychological trauma and disorders was studied by Palmeri (2020) through a survey of 39 respondents, which showed a negative correlation between the two. Thus, the research confirms that for students from migrant families, there may be additional predictors of stress related to family support and a feature of cultural adjustment.
Despite the evidence, the results do not explain whether the additional stress of such students leads to higher overall levels of perceived stress compared to “native” students. The present survey-based research paper helps answer the knowledge gap and determine whether students from migrant families experience more stress. The demographic attribute determining an individual’s background was used as an independent factor, while the dependent variable determined the level of perceived stress.
An additional interest was the study of the correlation between the level of perceived stress and the level of self-confidence. The first hypothesis of the study assumed that the level of perceived stress among migrant students is higher compared to native students because such students tend to have many more worries and pressures on them. The second hypothesis suggested that there was a strong negative relationship between stress and self-confidence levels, as it was expected that higher levels of stress led to a lack of self-confidence through increased anxiety and an inability to be optimistic.
Methodology
Participants
The initial sample size was 277 respondents; however, the non-binding nature of the responses to the questions, including those key to this study, required the removal of irrelevant entries. This processing resulted in a sample size of 116 Minnesota State University, Mankato students, of whom 74.1% (n = 86) were female, 17.2% (n = 20) were male, 0.9% (n = 1) identified themselves as non-binary, and 7.8% (n = 9) declined to respond.
In terms of age distribution, the mean age of the sample was 21.8 (SD = 6.02) years, with the youngest respondent being 17 and the oldest being 67. The number of students by year was approximately equal: freshmen (21.6%, n = 25), sophomores (22.4%, n = 26), third-year students (23.3%, n = 27), fourth-year students (23.3%, n = 27), and 9.5% (n = 11) of absent records. Ethnically, the sample was 68.1% (n = 79) White, 12.9% (n = 15) Black/African American, 6.0% (n = 7) Asian, 4.3% (n = 5) Hispanic/Latino, and 0.9% (n = 1) Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
Materials
The online survey, consisting of 75 questions, was developed on the Qualtrics platform. At the beginning of the questionnaire, the respondent read the informed consent form and was introduced to the goals and objectives of the research project. The first block of questions (N = 23) measured the students’ academic experiences and study habits, and the second block (N = 15) asked the respondents to rate their health and wellness experiences and behaviors.
The third block of the questionnaire (N = 15) asked the respondent to rate their agreement with statements regarding lifestyle and level of self-satisfaction. The fourth block (N = 8) focused on respondents’ social activities and online presence. Finally, in the last block, the respondent (N = 14) had to answer questions related to demographic characteristics. The question structures included a choice of the most appropriate answer and several at once, and they were based on Likert scales.
Procedure
Invitation links were sent out to random students at Minnesota State University, Mankato, to participate in the survey through a corporate platform. Respondents’ responses were automatically saved to Qualtrics, from where they were exported to Excel for initial processing and removal of irrelevant entries. Statistical tests were conducted using Pearson’s correlation test (to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between self-satisfaction and perceived stress) and an independent samples t-test (to determine differences in mean stress values between “native” and migrant students). The analysis was conducted in JASP, and the results are interpreted and discussed in the paper.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
Analysis of descriptive statistics revealed that the mean perceived stress level among the 116 respondents was 6.50 (SD = 2.38). Given the ten-point Likert scale used (10 being the highest score), this indicated an above-average level of stress inherent in the respondents. A ten-point Likert scale was also used to assess student self-satisfaction, and analysis indicated that the mean was 5.71 (SD = 2.52). Analysis of parental immigration status surveyed students revealed that 66.4% (n = 77) natural-born citizens, 11.2% (n = 13) first-generation immigrants, and 12.9% (n = 15) undocumented were represented in the sample, with 9.5% (n = 11) respondents providing no response to this question.
Correlation Test
A Pearson correlation test was used to test the strength and direction of the relationship between the variables. The results indicated a significantly weak negative relationship between self-satisfaction and perceived stress (r = -.190, p <.042). This implies that as the level of stress increases, the individual’s self-satisfaction decreases, but this relationship is relatively weak.
T-Test
An independent samples t-test was used to test for differences in the mean values of students’ perceived stress as a function of parental immigration status. The group of students with “undocumented” values of this variable was not considered in the test. The results of the analysis demonstrated no statistically significant difference in mean values between students whose parents were natural-born citizens and first-generation immigrants (F(88) = 2.63, p <.274). This implied that students from immigrant families (M = 6.77, SD = 1.88) did not experience more stress than “native” students (M = 6.32, SD = 2.53).
Discussion
The research paper sought to investigate the level of perceived stress among first-generation immigrant students compared to “native” students from the United States and to determine the relationship between students’ levels of self-satisfaction and stress. The results demonstrated that students in both categories showed no difference in stress levels. In addition, it was revealed that when stress levels increased, students’ self-satisfaction dropped, but the relationship between the variables was weak. Previously, it had been suggested that migrant students should have experienced more stress because they were characterized by additional worries and psychological pressure from family, as evidenced by scientific sources, among others. However, the absence of a significant relationship for stress levels depending on the migration background of students can be explained either by the compensation of unexamined stress factors by “native” students or by their initially higher stress levels.
Additionally, it is possible that students in the sample did not experience the kind of stress described by academic sources (Palmeri, 2020; Lane & Miranda, 2018). At the same time, the presence of a significant weak correlation between self-satisfaction and stress can be explained by the assumption that for students with high levels of stress, there are more psychological disadvantage factors that hinder self-satisfaction.
The study is associated with some limitations, which may be part of future work. In particular, the results are specific to Minnesota State University, Mankato, and can hardly be scaled to students at other universities and states. In addition, the sample size for migrant students was about six times smaller than for “native” students, which may have biased the representativeness of the sample. Considering stress as the dependent variable also did not consider extraneous variables such as gender and age, which could have skewed the results.
As part of future work, it is suggested that the sample be significantly more extensive and more representative of ethnic cohorts. Controlling for extrinsic variables would also make sense, as older migrant students with life experience may have experienced different stress than younger students. It has also been suggested that standardized self-satisfaction and stress questionnaires be used to assess the reproducibility of results such as the Stress Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985; Reis et al., 2010). Further research is expected to extend the findings and shed light on the nature of the difference in stress between “native” students and descendants of migrants.
References
Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75. Web.
Lane, R., & Miranda, R. (2018). The effects of familial acculturative stress and hopelessness on suicidal ideation by immigration status among college students. Journal of American College Health, 66(2), 76–86. Web.
Palmeri, N. (2020). Living up to the American Dream: The influence of family on second-generation immigrants [PDF document]. Web.
Reis, R. S., Hino, A. A., & Añez, C. R. (2010). Perceived stress scale. Journal of Health Psychology, 15(1), 107-114. Web.