A study of international students' adjustment problems and ameliorating programs at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

摘要

Problem. The first problem of this study was to determine the differences in eleven adjustment problem variable scores between international students at SWBTS in the Spring Semester of 2009 and international students at the six seminaries of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the Fall Semester of 2001. The eleven variables are finance, placement services, health services, student activities, orientation services, admission-selection, living/dining, English language, academic record, social/personal, and religion. The second problem was to determine correlations between specified adjustment problem variables and specified ameliorating program variables. The specified program variables were writing assistants, written communication class, academic advisors, professors, registrar's office, student services, chapel services, small group activities, new student orientation, international office, campus counseling center, general scholarship, on-campus jobs, Helping Hands, housing office, Daily Bread Food Ministry, seminary health clinic, CareNow, International Fellowship, sponsoring faculty members for various ethnic groups, and admissions office. The specified adjustment problem variables were finance, placement services, health services, student activities, orientation services, admission-selection, living/dining, English language, academic record, social/personal, and religion.;Procedures. The survey questionnaires with MISPI were mailed to 359 international students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, of whom 163 international students returned their questionnaires. Their responses were utilized for statistical analysis. One-sample t-tests and Pearson correlation tests were used for testing hypotheses.;Findings and conclusion. One-sample t-tests revealed that SWBTS international students scored significantly higher in financial problems and significantly lower in English language problems than SBC international students did. Pearson correlation tests revealed that eight program variables (on-campus jobs; academic advisors; professors; student services; international office; new student orientation; chapel services; and admissions office) had significant negative correlations with their problem variables. That is, SWBTS international students showed high levels of satisfaction with these programs regarding their adjustment problem scores.