Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation towards Perceived Stress among International Students of a Public University in Sabah: An Exploration Study for Social Sustainability

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It has the literature review in the introduction.  I would advise creating a literature review section.
The paper presents the information sequentially and well organized.
The methodology is well developed.
It has some relevance to make the issue of stress of displaced students aware for their adaptation to a new sociocultural context. 
Weaknesses:
- It has the problem that ethical issues are not reported in the research. The questionnaire was conducted on Google Forms. It is not known whether the participating students gave their informed consent for the processing of their data. For research in Western standards this is an important aspect and may be limiting for approval for editing.
- There could be more depth to the results with the phrase used in the title: "An Exploration Study for Social Sustainability". "Social sustainability" is only used in the title, abstract and keywords.

 

Author Response

Response 1:

The literature review section has been created as suggested. The introduction and literature review have been separated accordingly.

All participants were asked to answer the consent questions that have been added to the google form before provide their data. Therefore, students who have participated in this study have given their consent to process the data as stated in the form. Each of their answers has been observed carefully and recorded. The ethical approval from the university is for collection of data, data analysis dan publication. Code of ethical JKetika 3/20/(11) UMS. Ethical approval letter been attached.

Social sustainability has been given focused as suggested. Social sustainability has been explained in relation to homesickness, socio-cultural adaptation and stress. Data analysis on social sustainability covers three main aspect in this research such as Homesickness and Socio-Cultural Adaptation towards Perceived Stress among international  students. 

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This an intersting article focusing  on local cultures and homesickness, and the issue of stress resulting form leaving home in order to study. The intr0duction provides enough info relatig to the overall problem, the resercah design and the methodology crearly explained and tne discusion if the resuts also provides some insights into the relationship of the aforementioned concepts. The correlations (e.g., socio-cultural adaptation and stress levels, homesickness and stress). 

These results, of course, are something that one would expect to find, and the authors do well to point out that the importance and implications of their findings for both students and universities. However, claims about such notions as better adaption to local cultures and social sustainability deserve more attention and the discussion couldgo into some more depth. Also the introduction (or in my view another section) should 'explicitly' discuss the notion of "social sustainability" . 

Author Response

These results, of course, are something that one would expect to find, and the authors do well to point out that the importance and implications of their findings for both students and universities. However, claims about such notions as better adaption to local cultures and social sustainability deserve more attention and the discussion could go into some more depth. Also the introduction (or in my view another section) should 'explicitly' discuss the notion of "social sustainability".

Response 

Social sustainability in relation to homesickness, socio-cultural adaptation and stress has been discussed as suggested.

 

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx