Abstract:

International students who are studying as foreign students tend to experience greater stress and anxiety during their study. They need to adjust to the new environment and overcome challenges. Resilience level of student is an important influence in the healthy adjustment to their life pressures and stresses. In fact, lack of comprehensive research on resilience and its related factor among international students in Malaysia, motivated researcher to organize this research.

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between self-efficacy, the dimensions of psychological well-being and resilience among international students. This study employed a descriptive correlational design. The sample consisted of 291 international students of University Putra Malaysia. The participants were selected using multistage sampling. The study employed the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), the Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB) with 18 items grouped in six dimensions (autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, positive relations with others, personal growth, and self-acceptance) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC).

To examine the relationship between self-efficacy, psychological well-being and resilience, linear regression analysis with the stepwise method was carried out. The results revealed that self-efficacy was a significant predictor of resilience. Also, three dimentions of psychological well-being (autonomy, environmental mastery, and self-acceptance) were the best predictors of resilience.

The findings of the study will be useful in helping educators, counselors, psychologist, and researchers for developing approaches to improve students’ academic excellence. Also, the findings of this study will help international students to enhance their knowledge about some psychological concepts which lead them to better adjust with life challenges. The result of this study provides social and psychological researchers some features of personality and behaviors among individuals that need to be probed further. Hopefully, the finding of this study will be helpful to the magnet attentions from the involved parties, such as Ministry of Education Malaysia, to consider the effective factors which have effects on international student outcomes.

Keywords:

Self-efficacy, psychological well-being, resilience, international students.