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PUBH6013 Qualitative Research Methods 3A Report Sample

Context:

This assessment involves preparing a report with data analysis/discussion of interviews and a brief presentation. Assessment 3A advances skills in analysing and reporting qualitative data, and reflexivity of practice. Key understanding includes how to generate meaning from qualitative data, how to report the results of qualitative analysis, and how to reflect on one’s own performance to identify strengths and opportunities for growth. The assessment prepares students for an important task common to the public health practitioner role.

Instructions:

Analysis: Use the resources in module six to:

1. Code the data that you collect from your interviewees.

2. Develop themes based on your coding.

3. Report on the themes that you’ve identified, supported by relevant quotes from your interviewees. Report this part in the same style as the results section of a qualitative journal article.

Reflection: reflect on your experience of interviewing and analysing the data. What did you do well, and what did you struggle with? What could you learn to do better?

What did you learn through this experience?

Transcripts: All students MUST submit their interview transcripts as Appendices at the end of their report.

Reports submitted without interview transcripts will not be graded.

Solution

Introduction

Studies shown that risk of experiencing poor mental health issue among international student due to number of factors which contribute for the same, it includes, isolation from the culture and families, financial stress, academic pressures and language barriers (Kim & Kim, 2021). During this Covid-19 period, this impact has increased as people were restrained in the place and is unable to return to their loved ones. For Assignment Help, Considering the severity of the topic, it has been selected for the research. The aim of the research is to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of International College Students. To achieve the aim, interview has been conducted and the collected data are analyzed.

Data Analysis

The data collected has been collected through a semi-conducted interview with 4 students. Interview forms to all the four colleagues will be done by Video chat, as during covid 19, travelling is restricted. The students were asked 7 questions (attached in appendix 1) and their answers (attached in appendix 2) are being recorded for the thematic analysis, which helped to analyse the themes that are being made which provide necessary information regarding the study (Song, Zhao and Zhu, 2021). The results of the data collected include Codes that depict various themes with specified quotes to describe the situation of international students during Covid 19.

Results

After going through the interview answers the following Codes have been evaluated.

Depression and anxiety

After examining the answers of the interviewers, it has been made out that many of them are having signs of depression and anxiety. Going through all the answers it is sure that the pandemic had brought up severe mental trauma to the students, especially the ones who cannot even meet up with their families (Oswalt et al., 2020). One of the students quoted “I really had depression as being locked in a room alone is very bad, I was unable to make the simple decisions in life and things were getting really hard for me”.

- Students feel like they are being trapped: From the interview answers, it can be made that the students do not feel like they have any kind of freedom. They are always inside a room and cannot go out to do anything they need to be in their rooms and do everything for themselves (Oswalt et al., 2020). Constantly being in the same place for days and days has been making the students feel hopeless and they cannot think rationally.

- Students cannot describe their mental state to their families: It can be said that till now many parents do not understand mental health and which is making it more difficult for the students to deal with their mental health. Many of them even cannot talk about it with their peers due to the fear of being judged (Forbes-Mewett & Sawyer, 2019).

- There is a fear and feeling of anxiety among students: Many students are having anxiety, where they cannot think rationally and start blaming themselves as highlighted in imposter syndrome (Usher, Durkin & Bhullar, 2020). Many students could not even study properly as things were online and they are unable to cope with the change in the study system.

Lack of Mental health Assistance:

As the students are suffering there is a need of letting them go through counselling or get medical help. But as told before students are not comfortable sharing their mental state with their parents and peers due to the taboo that they will be considered as psycho or will be judged (Khan et al., 2020). Many students seek mental health assistance but do not know what to do or where to get it. The interview answers reveal that it is less likely that they are getting the required medical attention. One of the students quoted that “No, my family didn’t hear me out and that was a bit stressful as they were the last people to share what I was going through”.

- Not enough programs to guide the students: The students must get proper counselling or therapy which would help them. However, there are not many programs online or other modes from where they can get the proper information for these. It becomes very important for educational institutions to hold counselling and other informative programs which would guide the students properly (Wang, Hujjaree & Wang, 2020).

- Families do not assist with mental health: It is hard to believe, but still many families do indeed understand mental health or the problems related to it. It is not their fault though as most of them are not very informative about this situation. But mostly even if the students open up to the parents the parents do not provide them with the proper financial or physical assistance which further increases the mental strain (Wu et al., 2020).

Poor or no Coping Mechanisms

As time passes on and people cannot deal with the problem, they are facing they start finding alternatives to deal with it. Many students do stuff that is not good for their health and still uses it as a coping mechanism. While interviewing one student quoted that “I got engrossed in pornographic sites” which is sign of a toxic coping mechanism. They are trying to worry less about how they feel by sticking to things that are not all healthy and are indeed doing more harm to them (Zhai & Du 2020). The students don’t realize that and this impacts their mental health even more.

- Students are trying to overcome their mental issues with a toxic alternative: No one wants to hold onto something painful and people try to avoid that with something which might be harmful. Most of them are found to do illegal kinds of stuff like smoking, drinking, and being at home alone so that they can overcome the trauma (Chirikov et al., 2020).

- They have formed habits that would affect their health in the long run: As discussed above the students have formed toxic habits and these toxic habits would start affecting their health even more. No matter how much they try to overlook their mental stress on the other hand they are degrading their health even more by getting addicted to habits that are not appropriate.

Physical Restrictions and Its Mental Impact:

Students are locked inside homes and have nowhere to go and even many students have been stuck outside their homes as they cannot go back to their parents due to the restrictions forged outside (Talevi et al., 2020). Many students want to get access to open spaces where they can relax but people are only allowed to go for emergency. During the interview one quoted “I really wanted to meet my friends have fun with them” and mostly others also answered something related to meeting friends and families

- Students are not allowed to go outside and that makes their mental state stressful: students want to meet their friends in real life and want to talk to them and that is natural when they are distanced from others it becomes difficult for them to resist themselves from meeting each other (Chen et al., 2020). The more they are stuck inside the more they feel lonely and which increases their stress in them.

- There is no one to talk with or spend time with: Many students have been stuck outside their native home which makes them alone and away from their parents. This creates a huge impact on their mental state as they cannot even go and talk to their parents even if they want. No matter how much connectivity is there a physical presence of people matters to every student (Talevi et al., 2020).

- They want to go out and meet others: It is natural as after all student life is mostly about enjoying the youth. Students need to focus on academics but having friends around helps them to share their thoughts in person have fun and go to different places to hang out. Due to the restrictions, the students cannot meet each other anymore which makes it difficult for them to open up, and hence it seriously affects everyone mentally.

Reflection

While I was performing this study there were a lot of things that I went through and it was a bit stressful on my part as well. No matter what I have been through the same and after going through the answers I may not completely but was relating to them and was able to understand what they might have gone through. I made the interview questions as straight forward I could and was able to get the information I needed from the students I interviewed. I would have preferred a structured interview to a semi-structured one as no matter how much you try to say there is no bias there is a huge chance that the participant didn’t share everything they wanted. I guess next time I would try to make a good bond with the interviewee and make them feel comfortable. I would also try to make sure that the questions should be set in a way that it becomes easier for the interviewee to answer them. Even after all this, I learned a lot from this study. I was cleared that many students like me have gone through the same and there is nothing wrong with feeling low in life. I would always suggest that mental health must be given priority and taken care of.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the covid-19 has impacted the mental health of many students and especially those who were locked outside their homes away from their families. Mental health should be taken care of properly. Educational institutions should look into it must educate both the parents and the students so that they lead a healthy life.

Reference

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