Better meeting the counselling needs of ethnic Chinese international students: Exploring the relationship between cultural backgrounds and counselling expectations

Compensating for reduced public funding, Australian universities actively recruit fullfee paying East Asian international students. University staff , aware of international students having diffi culties coping with cultural and emotional issues, often encourage them to seek university counselling services. However, East Asian international students under-utilise counselling services. Th is paper is based on the fi ndings of a study seeking to off er empirical support for Draguns’s hypothesis that related “individualism” and “power distance” to attitudes towards counselling. Using the Singelis Individualism Collectivism Scale (ICS) and the Tinsley Expectations about Counselling-Brief Form (EAC-B) questionnaire, the study explored the relationship between levels of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism and attitudes towards the roles of counsellors, the roles of clients, and the process and goals of counselling among ethnic Chinese, Australian, and American students. Th e fi ndings from the study supported Draguns’s model indicating that individuals endorsing collectivistic attitudes expressed a strong preference for counsellors who were direct, expert-like, and helped clients seek concrete solutions to their problems. Th e fi ndings have implications for universities to provide funding for an adequate and diverse counselling staff to meet the needs of the international students they so actively recruit.