Experience of lifestyle changes among middle eastern graduate students in the United States

- Background Lifestyle is the way a person lives, it is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time and place. Students who pursue their degrees away from their cultural norms have different experiences. -Purpose Discuss the effect of cultural and environmental changes on individual's behavior. -Significance Several international studies have revealed high rates of health problems among students and those conducted in the United States have reported increase in stress among students in various fields of study. -Methodology Colaizzi's phenomenological descriptive method of inquiry. An exhaustive description was created from the themes and the formulated meaning and was adjusted and validated by the interviewees, then the fundamental structure was developed accordingly. - Findings/Results Thirty eight significant statements have been extracted from the transcription of the interviews and transferred into formulated meaning. Statements were sorted into 9 themes: Away from home: homesickness, school is challenging and stressful, it is not cold it is freezing, lack of physical activity, social norms and peer pressure, dietary patterns and available options, away from home and arriving to new home, time is money and day to day expenses. - Conclusion/Recommendations Students' behavior and lifestyle have been affected in different ways, some were positively affected and some were negatively affected. Students counseling services should be available in the schools for the international students to help them and their families to handle the changes they face before starting and during their studies in the Unites States.