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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1412427

RESEARCH THROUGH SERVICE: MEETING CHINESE INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

Provisionally accepted
Changming Duan Changming Duan 1*Jingru Chen Jingru Chen 2Fenglan Li Fenglan Li 3Mi Zhou Mi Zhou 4Xiubin Lin Xiubin Lin 5Shengnan Li Shengnan Li 6
  • 1 University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States
  • 2 Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
  • 3 Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
  • 4 China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 5 Hubei Oriental Insight Mental Health Institute, Wuhan, China
  • 6 Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To understand and assist Chinese International College Students (CICS) in overcoming challenges associated with studying and living in the United States, we took a research through service approach and designed, implemented and evaluated a four-week long group intervention program aimed at strengthening CICS mental health. The group was designed based on our view that effective mental health service for CICS should be culture specific, growth oriented, and positive learning outcome driven (vs. problem or problem solution focused). Thirteen undergraduate Chinese international students voluntarily attended the group, and twelve of them participated in a group evaluation interview study. The group sessions were conducted using Chinese language and focused on engaging participants in experiential activities that aimed at strengthening their sense of cultural confidence as well as a positive and growth-oriented mindset. The semi-structured post group interviews covered the participants' reflections about the group experience as well as their general views related to well-being, perceived challenges and challenge management, and attitudes toward utilizing professional help when needed. The interviews were transcribed, and data analysis was performed using the Consensus Qualitative Research method (Hill, 2012). The results showed that Chinese international students had encountered cultural conflicts and challenges that caused adjustment difficulties, and cultural confidence-focused and psychological strength-based interventions could be helpful to them. We discussed the result in the Chinese students' cultural context and pointed out the implications of the study for educational institutions and mental health providers.

    Keywords: Chinese international students, Chinese culture, growth-oriented, Mental Health, Culture-specific

    Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Duan, Chen, Li, Zhou, Lin and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Changming Duan, University of Kansas, Lawrence, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.