Perceived social support and well-being of international students at an Italian university
Open accessAbstract
The present study aimed to explore international students’ well-being in relation to their perception of social support and dispersion of dependency on various resources. Participants were 139 international students at an Italian university who completed the WHO-5 Well-being Index, Symptom Checklist 90-R, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Dependency Grids. Results showed that higher well-being correlated with higher support and lower distress and that higher dispersion of dependency was associated with higher perceived support. International students who sought professional psychological help also reported lower well-being, higher distress, and fewer resources compared to those who did not seek psychological support. Furthermore, coming from collectivist cultures (rather than individualist ones) as well as being a long-term (rather than short-term) student was mostly associated with higher distress and less perceived support. These results suggest that counselling services for international students should help them find new sources of social support.
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Cultural loneliness is linked to poorer perceived social support and higher psychological discomfort among international students.
“Cultural loneliness is a feeling of isolation that results from being in a foreign cultural or linguistic environment (Sawir et al., 2008); this has been proven to be highly relevant among this population and linked to poorer perceived social support and higher psychological discomfort (Cipolletta et al., 2022).”
From Social connections combat loneliness and promote wellbeing among college students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic (2025) · cites this paper as Cipolletta et al., 2022
The Discussion (pp. 12–13) reports that some groups of international students perceived less support and greater psychological distress, and that higher support was associated with lower distress. But the study does not identify or measure cultural loneliness, so it does not establish that cultural loneliness itself is linked to those outcomes. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThis result is consistent with those collected before the pandemic in the same population (Cipolletta et al., 2022).
“This result is consistent with those collected before the pandemic in the same population (Cipolletta et al., 2022).”
From Social connections combat loneliness and promote wellbeing among college students coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic (2025) · cites this paper as Cipolletta et al., 2022
The Participants section (p. 5) says the study recruited international students at the University of Padova between March 2019 and January 2020, supporting the description of pre-pandemic results from that population. The citing sentence does not identify what “this result” is, so the claimed consistency cannot be checked against the source’s Results (pp. 9–12). (LLM, conf=0.80)
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References 63 · Cited by 20
Research works printed but not linked: 7
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- Authors
- Cipolletta, S., Mercurio, A., & Pezzetta, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Padua (IT)
- Roma Tre University (IT)
- IRCCS San Camillo Hospital (IT)
- Venue
- Journal of International Students
- Publisher
- STAR Scholars Network
- Published
- 2021-11-19
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- ISSN
- 2162-3104 (ISSN-L)
- 2166-3750
- OpenAlex
- W3217397569
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 2.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of International Students (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › International Student and Expatriate Challenges
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Student Stress and Coping
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Health and Well-being Studies
- Keywords
- international students, perceived social support, well-being, psychological distress, dependency, mental health help-seeking, collectivist culture, individualistic culture, length of hospital stay, counseling services, university students
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