Acculturation strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students in German and South African Universities

Please click here: PARTICIPANT INFORMATION LEAFLET

Acculturation strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students in South African and German Universities – Online study

(Principal Investigators: Prof. Erhabor Idemudia & Dr. Constance Karing)

Dear international students,

you are being invited to take part in our research project on acculturation strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students in Germany and South Africa. Please take some time to read the information presented here, which will explain the details of this project. Your participation is entirely voluntary and you are free to decline to participate. If you say no, this will not affect you negatively in any way whatsoever. You are also free to withdraw from the study at any point, even if you do agree to take part. Please ask the researcher any questions about any part of this project that you do not fully understand. All data will be treated as group data. No Name or ID is required.

1. Principle investigators and contact details: The principle investigators are Dr. Constance Karing (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Department of Research Synthesis, Intervention and Evaluation, Humboldstr. 26, Jena; constance.karing@uni-jena.de; Tel: 0 36 41 9-45 907) and Prof. Erhabor Idemudia from the North-West University in South Africa (Faculty of Humanities, Albert Luthuli/University Drive, Mmabatho 2735, Erhabor.Idemudia@nwu.ac.za; Tel: +27.18.389.2899 (office)).

2. What is this research study about? The study will investigate the associations between acculturation strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students in Germany and South Africa. Further, the study will examine the roles of social support and psychological capital.

3. Online study: The study is an online study on the associations between acculturative strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students in South Africa and Germany. Only international students in Germany and South Africa (18 years and above) can take part in this study. Data will be collected using the survey tool SoSci Survey. The SoSci Survey GmbH has its headquarters in Munich (Germany), and the computer centre houses the survey servers www.soscisurvey.de and s2survey.net. A continuous SSL encryption (HTTPS) protects the data when filling in the questionnaire. The online survey is about 30 minutes. All data will be treated as group data. The data will be published anonymised.

4. Will you benefit from taking part in this research? The direct benefits for you as a participant will probably be you contributing to the understanding of the associations between acculturative strategies, acculturative stress and mental health of international students and the opportunity to share and voice your opinion regarding your experience. Further, strategies can be developed to decrease acculturative stress and increase mental health among international students.

5. Are there any risks? No risks could be reasonably expected from the study participation.

6. What will your responsibilities be? You will be expected to participate in an online study (July/ August 2023).

7. Insurance: The study provides no insurance.

8. Is there a study-participation compensation? Are there any costs?

There are no costs. Due to the length of the online survey the participants in Germany can take part in a raffle (gift cards - Thalia, 30 gift cards: each 10 EUR; 5 gift cards: each 20 EUR; 2 gift cards: 50 EUR).