122. Construction of a mental health support system for international chinese language education students and its impact on social adaptation

Abstract Background With the global spread of Chinese language and culture, an increasing number of overseas students are participating in international Chinese language education programs. However, due to language pressure, cultural shock, differences in learning styles, and barriers in cross-cultural communication, these students often experience psychological problems that are latent, cumulative, and delayed. Social adaptation difficulties are frequently accompanied by anxiety, loneliness, interpersonal withdrawal, and learning burnout, while existing student management systems provide limited psychological support for learners from cross-cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is essential to construct a mental health support system tailored to international Chinese language education students and to examine its effectiveness in promoting social adaptation and psychological well-being. Methods A mixed-methods research design combining quantitative tracking and qualitative interviews was adopted. A total of 186 international students enrolled in the School of International Chinese Language Education at a university were included and randomly assigned by residential area to a psychological support intervention group (n = 93) and a routine management group (n = 93). The intervention lasted ten weeks and consisted of three core components. The first component was language-culture integrated support, including tiered language tutoring, cross-cultural communication training, and cultural scenario-based experiential courses. The second component was the construction of a peer mutual-support network, which established a “peer pairing mechanism” between Chinese and international students and implemented group cooperative tasks. The third component focused on optimizing psychological services, with counselors and psychology instructors forming a support team to provide emotional screening, crisis warning, and individual counseling. Psychological health and social adaptation were assessed using a cross-cultural adaptation scale, a university mental health scale, and a learning engagement score. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain students’ authentic experiences with the support system. Results After ten weeks of intervention, the psychological support group demonstrated significant improvements in emotional adaptation, learning adaptation, and interpersonal adaptation on the cross-cultural adaptation scale. The total score increased by 24.37% from baseline, substantially higher than the 9.54% improvement observed in the routine management group (p