Struggling in HK--Study of Sociocultural Acculturation Impact on Mainland Students’ Mental Health in Hong Kong

In recent years, there has been a notable rise in the enrollment of mainland Chinese students in postgraduate programs in Hong Kong, positioning them as one of the largest international student cohorts in the region (Vyas & Yu, 2018). When faced with the challenge of acclimating to an unfamiliar culture, non-local students may encounter psychological adaptation difficulties marked by feelings of disorientation, anxiety, isolation, or depression (Ward, 1996). This study seeks to examine the relationship between psychological well-being and sociocultural adaption of postgraduate students from mainland China in Hong Kong. The initial phase will involve a questionnaire survey to assess the psychological well-being status of postgraduate students from mainland China in Hong Kong, utilising the GHQ-28 scale. The selection of questionnaire indicators will be derived from the research of Bostani, Nadri, and Nasab (2014). To measure mainland Chinese students’ sociocultural adaption capacity, we adopt Pan, Yue, and Chan’s (2010) research method to evaluate mainland Chinese students’ acculturative difficulties scale when studying in Hong Kong. They created the 17-item acculturative Hassles Scale for Chinese Students (AHSCS) to measure mainland Chinese students’ cross-cultural dilemmas quantitatively. Upon attaining the results, the objective of this research is to offer recommendations to universities in Hong Kong on how to enhance their support systems for mainland Chinese students to handle acculturative difficulties when they are studying in Hong Kong.