Mental health trajectories in undergraduate students over the first year of university: a longitudinal cohort study

Journal article

First-year Chinese international students (CIS) face significant mental health challenges due to acculturative stress, language barriers, and academic pressures. Despite rapid growth in the UK, research on parent-child communication and its impact on their mental health is limited and mostly quantitative, thus necessitating qualitative inquiry to capture nuanced experiences and cultural influences during university transition. Using semi-structured interviews with 10 first-year Chinese students at a leading UK university, reflexive thematic analysis identified three themes: Unfavourable Conversations, Supportive Interactions, and Communication Cadence. Findings underscore the benefits of emotional/ practical support and appropriate communication schedules while highlighting the harm of maladaptive parental practices, providing insights for future research and initiatives to enhance student well-being

Authors: Adams, KL; Saunders, KE; Keown-Stoneman, CDG; Duffy, AC

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Journal: BMJ Open
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 12
• Pages: e047393-e047393
• Publication date: 2021-11-30
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-047393
• EISSN: 2044-6055
• ISSN: 2044-6055
• Language: English
• Keywords: Odds; Psychosocial; Odds ratio; Clinical psychology; Medicine; Depression (economics); Anxiety; Cohort study; Mental health; Cohort; Internal medicine; Logistic regression; Psychiatry