Social support and psychotherapy outcomes for international students in university/college counseling centers

Abstract

Objective: To explore the relationship between international students’ social support at intake and international student distress at end of treatment. Participants: Data was collected from participants (n = 40,085) from 90 United States universities using the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) database. Methods: Participants completed measures of psychological distress and perceived social support. Using multilevel modeling, we predicted participants’ distress at end of treatment by international student status, social support, race, and length of therapy. Results: We found that international students who reported lower social support at intake ended treatment with higher levels of psychological distress when distress at intake was controlled compared to United States peers. Conclusions: Understanding the significance of social support for international students can help to inform mental healthcare professionals’ approach to psychotherapy.

Keywords:

• International students
• social support
• psychotherapy outcomes
• college mental health

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States and was deemed to not need review by Scripps College’s IRB.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.