The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the psychological well being of Chinese international students’ spouses living in the U.S.

Utilizing the follow-up explanations variant of an explanatory sequential design (Creswell & Clark, 2018), I aimed to answer the following research question in the present study: how has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the psychological well-being of Chinese international students’ spouses (Hereinafter referred to as “spouses”) living in the U.S.? I recruited a sample of 24 participants (n = 18, 75% females; n = 6, 25% males) from a national solicitation for participants. First, each participant was asked to respond to a single self-report item related to psychological well-being (on an ordinal scale of 1 to 5) and the 42-item Ryff psychological well-being scale (Ryff, 1989) where responses are made on a Likert-type scale with values ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Participants’ self-reported psychological well-being results indicated slightly higher than normal levels of well-being during the pandemic (M = 3.21, SD =.83). Results from the Pearson Correlations suggested that there was a significant relationship between participants’ psychological wellbeing and positive relations (r= .57, p = .004) and self-acceptance (r = .58, p = .003) during the pandemic. Follow-up analyses showed a statistically significant gender difference for personal growth (t(22) = -2.41, p = .03, Cohen’s D = 3.86, very large effect) and positive relations (t(22) = -2.78, p = .01, Cohen’s D = 4.85, very large effect). From these participants, six individuals (n = 5, 83% females; n = 1, 17% male) were recruited to participate in a follow-up qualitative investigation. Four themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: mental health concerns, environmental emotional reactions, salient challenges, and together we can. The study sheds light on spouses’ psychological, relational, and societal needs, which can be used to inform advocacy aimed at helping mental health professionals, communities, and universities provide multiculturally competent services to spouses.