American and foreign student alienation as a function of size of university enrollment.

Abstract

This study investigated the problem of alienation in two American universities in the mid-west. Alienation was measured using the General Alienation Scale (GA), which consists of 20 items. Alienation scores were obtained from both American and foreign students in 2 schools -University of Kansas (KU) with 20,000 enrollment and Emporia State University (ESU) with 6,000 enrollment. The experimental design was a 2x2 ANOVA with the two factors being: (1). classification of students (American and foreign students), (2). size of university enrollment (KU-20,000 and ESU6,000). The sample consisted of 200 volunteer subjects, 50 in each group. Results showed that foreign students were significantly more alienated than American students (p < 0.00001). Size of school enrollment was not a significant variable affecting alienation scores; its level of significance being 0.71. The interaction effect of both variables was also found to be significant (p < 0.001). Results are discussed in terms of previous findings and its social and clinical implication on the mental health needs of the student community.