An Investigation of Factors Contributing to Psychological Stress Among the Foreign Students : A relationship between their language ability and stress

The number of foreign students studying in the University of the Ryukyus has increased year by year. Accordingly, their intercultural mental health problems have increased. This paper mainly concerns the mental health status of the foreign students, that is submitted as a part of a broader research project pertaining to the mental health of the foreign students of the university. Subjects were 134 foreign students. Data were collected in February, 1994 by comprehensive self-reporting / self-rating questionaires administered at a foreign students group meeting. The main objective of this study was to investigate and analize stress levels, which foreign students had experienced through their language problems or difficulties at different time periods of their study experience in this university. This study shows that the stress level of Latin American students is significantlly low during the first three months. And the level of stress of students whose Japanese speaking skill estimate low is significantlly higher than other group. The result indicates importance of Japanese education for the foreign students to whom communicative ability is to be mainly promoted