The Effect of Perfectionism and Acculturative Stress on Levels of Depression Experienced by East Asian International Students

This study examined relationships among acculturative stress, grade point average satisfaction, maladaptive perfectionism, and depression in 52 East Asian international students and 126 North American students. Results indicated that a combined effect of perfectionism and acculturative stress accounted for more than 30% of the variance related to depression. Implications include the importance of attending to perfectionism and acculturative stress for improving the overall well‐being of East Asian international students. Este estudio examinó las relaciones entre el estrés aculturativo, la satisfacción con el promedio de calificaciones, el perfeccionismo inadaptado y la depresión en 52 estudiantes internacionales del este asiático y 126 estudiantes norteamericanos. Los resultados indicaron que el efecto combinado del perfeccionismo y el estrés aculturativo representó más del 30% de la varianza relacionada con la depresión. Las implicaciones incluyen la importancia de prestar atención a los niveles de perfeccionismo y estrés aculturativo para mejorar el bienestar general de los estudiantes internacionales del este asiático.     

Internationalizing counselling: A Southeast Asian perspective

To learn about our Southeast Asian colleagues’ views on internationalizing counselling psychology to Asian cultures, we interviewed eight counselling psychologists who had received their doctoral training in the United States. Four of the participants were currently practicing and teaching in their native countries and four in the United States. Using the basic principles of Grounded Theory [Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago, IL: Aldine.], we derived two themes from the data: (1) major assumptions in US counselling psychology that may limit its transferability to Southeast Asian cultures and (2) practices in learning, training, and cultural adjusting for future development and internationalization of counselling psychology. The participants emphasized the need for indigenization and knowledge sharing in the efforts to internationalize counselling psychology.