Evaluation of a Pilot School-Based Group for Mandarin-Speaking Minors

The population of Mandarin-speaking, Chinese international students is rapidly expanding in the United States (Institute of International Education n.d. ). Among them, there is a small subgroup of individuals who are minors and unaccompanied by parents (i.e., parachute kids). As part of its initiative to increase support for Mandarin-speaking minors, a private high school in the northeastern region of the U.S. offered a school-based psychoeducation/support group for its 17 Mandarin-speaking students for the first time. The purposes of the study were to (a) provide more general information on this particular group of adolescents by examining data obtained from the anonymous group evaluations and (b) explore the benefits and shortcomings of this pilot program. Results showed that the demographics of this population are changing and participants in general found the group useful for their transition to a new school system and the U.S. society. Future directions for practice and research are discussed.