Cargando…

Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Universities around the world, including Malaysia, have attracted many international students from different countries. Research has reported that acculturative stress resulting from international students’ attempts to adjust to the cultures of host countries is one of the most challengi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid, Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah, Kadir Shahar, Hayati, Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah, Saeed, Murad Abdu, Ying, Lim Poh
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068465/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32130180
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12950
_version_ 1783505586289115136
author Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid
Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah
Kadir Shahar, Hayati
Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah
Saeed, Murad Abdu
Ying, Lim Poh
author_facet Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid
Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah
Kadir Shahar, Hayati
Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah
Saeed, Murad Abdu
Ying, Lim Poh
author_sort Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Universities around the world, including Malaysia, have attracted many international students from different countries. Research has reported that acculturative stress resulting from international students’ attempts to adjust to the cultures of host countries is one of the most challenging issues that affects their lives in general and academic lives in particular. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an educational intervention on acculturative stress among new postgraduate international students joining Malaysian public universities. METHODS: A cluster randomized controlled trial design with Malaysian public universities as the unit of randomization will be used in this study. Public universities will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to be either in the intervention (educational program) or control group (waiting list). Participants in the intervention group will receive 7 sessions in 9 hours delivered by an expert in psychology and the researcher. The control group will receive the intervention once the 3-month follow-up evaluation is completed. RESULTS: The data will be analyzed using the generalized estimation equation with a confidence interval value of 95%; significant differences between and within groups are determined as P<.05. The results of the study underlie the effectiveness of educational program in decreasing acculturative stress of new international students and enabling them to cope with a new environment. The results of this study will contribute to previous knowledge of acculturative stress, acculturation, and adjustment of international students. Furthermore, such results are expected to play a role in raising university policy makers’ awareness of their postgraduate international students’ acculturative stress issues and how they can help them avoid such stress and perform well in their academic life. CONCLUSIONS: We expect that the intervention group will score significantly lower than the wait-list group on the immediate and 3-month postintervention evaluation of acculturative stress and achieve a higher level of adjustment. Results will have implications for international students, policy makers at universities, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, and future research. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials Registry India CTRI/2018/01/011223; http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/showallp.php?mid1= 21978&amp;EncHid=&amp;userName=Muhamad%20Hanafiah%20Juni INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/12950
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7068465
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher JMIR Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70684652020-03-19 Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah Kadir Shahar, Hayati Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah Saeed, Murad Abdu Ying, Lim Poh JMIR Res Protoc Protocol BACKGROUND: Universities around the world, including Malaysia, have attracted many international students from different countries. Research has reported that acculturative stress resulting from international students’ attempts to adjust to the cultures of host countries is one of the most challenging issues that affects their lives in general and academic lives in particular. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of an educational intervention on acculturative stress among new postgraduate international students joining Malaysian public universities. METHODS: A cluster randomized controlled trial design with Malaysian public universities as the unit of randomization will be used in this study. Public universities will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to be either in the intervention (educational program) or control group (waiting list). Participants in the intervention group will receive 7 sessions in 9 hours delivered by an expert in psychology and the researcher. The control group will receive the intervention once the 3-month follow-up evaluation is completed. RESULTS: The data will be analyzed using the generalized estimation equation with a confidence interval value of 95%; significant differences between and within groups are determined as P<.05. The results of the study underlie the effectiveness of educational program in decreasing acculturative stress of new international students and enabling them to cope with a new environment. The results of this study will contribute to previous knowledge of acculturative stress, acculturation, and adjustment of international students. Furthermore, such results are expected to play a role in raising university policy makers’ awareness of their postgraduate international students’ acculturative stress issues and how they can help them avoid such stress and perform well in their academic life. CONCLUSIONS: We expect that the intervention group will score significantly lower than the wait-list group on the immediate and 3-month postintervention evaluation of acculturative stress and achieve a higher level of adjustment. Results will have implications for international students, policy makers at universities, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, and future research. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical Trials Registry India CTRI/2018/01/011223; http://ctri.nic.in/Clinicaltrials/showallp.php?mid1= 21978&amp;EncHid=&amp;userName=Muhamad%20Hanafiah%20Juni INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/12950 JMIR Publications 2020-02-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7068465/ /pubmed/32130180 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12950 Text en ©Musheer Abdulwahid Al-Jaberi, Muhamad Hanafiah Juni, Hayati Kadir Shahar, Siti Irma Fadhilah Ismail, Murad Abdu Saeed, Lim Poh Ying. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 27.02.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Protocol
Al-Jaberi, Musheer Abdulwahid
Juni, Muhamad Hanafiah
Kadir Shahar, Hayati
Ismail, Siti Irma Fadhilah
Saeed, Murad Abdu
Ying, Lim Poh
Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title_full Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title_fullStr Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title_short Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention in Reducing New International Postgraduates’ Acculturative Stress in Malaysian Public Universities: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
title_sort effectiveness of an educational intervention in reducing new international postgraduates’ acculturative stress in malaysian public universities: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial
topic Protocol
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068465/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32130180
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12950
work_keys_str_mv AT aljaberimusheerabdulwahid effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial
AT junimuhamadhanafiah effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial
AT kadirshaharhayati effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial
AT ismailsitiirmafadhilah effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial
AT saeedmuradabdu effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial
AT yinglimpoh effectivenessofaneducationalinterventioninreducingnewinternationalpostgraduatesacculturativestressinmalaysianpublicuniversitiesprotocolforaclusterrandomizedcontrolledtrial