Student's Lifestyles: Cross Cultural Research (Thailand and Australia)

This study aimed to examine and compare the lifestyles of Australian and Thai undergraduates. There were 213 students who participated in the study; 112 were Thai and 101 were Australian. The instrument included a questionnaire containing six lifestyle categories. Cronbach's alpha coefficient revealed that the questionnaire's reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.92. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and t-test. The result indicated that the overall lifestyle score of students from both countries was moderate. However, there were differences between the two groups' lifestyles. The Australian participants favored the healthy lifestyle, whereas the Thai participants favored the conservative and homey lifestyles. Interestingly, the Australian participants' trendy lifestyle score was the lowest, while the Thai participants' night going lifestyle score was the highest. Comparing the two groups revealed a statistically significant difference of 0.05. This indicated that the Thai participants' lifestyles were more apparent than those of their counterparts. Only the night going lifestyle and the healthy lifestyle were rated higher by Australians than by Thais. The findings illustrate the differences in lifestyles between two countries, reflecting the complexity of lifestyle development in various dimensions. Understanding this complexity is therefore crucial.