Efficacy Of Psychological First Aid And Cognitive Behavioural Therapy On Unresolved Acculturative Stress Among Pakistani Male Students In Australia

Abstract

The purpose of study is to analyse efficacy of Psychological First Aid and Cognitive behavioural therapy to unresolved acculturative stress experienced by Pakistani male students in Australia. Therefore, the proposed hypothesis suggests “There will be a significant effect of Psychological First Aid on unresolved acculturative stress in Asian male International students in Australia” and “There will be a significant effect of cognitive behavioural therapy on unresolved acculturative stress in Pakistani male International students in Australia”. The research adopts pre-post within subject design. The selected measure is Acculturative Stress Scale for International Students (ASSIS), administered in the beginning, middle and last stage of study. This study is conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a survey was provided through ZTA educational consultants and selected participants were given Psychological First Aid training in groups (N=57) followed by individual follow up sessions. In the second phase, Cognitive [1]behavioural therapy (CBT) consisting of a nine-week sessional plan was implemented (N=49). The finding of the first hypothesis does not support the efficacy of Psychological First Aid on unresolved acculturative stress. Despite this, a slight variation in statistical value is observed. However, the result of the second hypothesis indicates the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy. The implications of the present research will draw attention to the significant need of cross-cultural research on the Pakistani population to gain an individual position in literature by promoting micro level studies on the nation. Moreover, further qualitative analysis and manualized format of psychological first aid to develop standardized parameters for evaluation is required. Ethical considerations are strictly followed.