Objective: This paper aims to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affects the mental distress of the Vietnamese students in the USA. We explore different root causes of mental distress among international students who are away from their home country, their loved ones, and being isolated from school and community due to this outbreak. Design: In-depth interviews were conducted to probe the reasons for mental stress during the pandemic and the narrative textual analysis was subsequently performed to analyze the results. This research includes the interviews of 20 Vietnamese students in the USA during the COVID-19 era. Results: The textual analysis showed that the mental distress of these Vietnamese students were caused by limited access to on-campus facilities and activities, limited access to public services including grocery shopping, transportations, clinics, the possibility of being infected, isolated living condition due to the lockdown order, and inability to go back to the home country when wanted. Conclusions: We found that both physical attributes (e.g., living condition, internet difficulty, overwhelmed healthcare system, restricted traveling, lack of personal interaction, limited access to public services) and psychological factors (e.g., anxiety of unfamiliar teaching modality, fear of viral infection, uncertain career aspects, cultural barrier and prejudice) directly led to the mental distress of these students. Moreover, other factors such as turbulent future job markets and potential racism toward Asians in relation with “Chinese virus” may cause the mental distress of these students.

Objective: Due to the significant higher prevalence, yet less attention of mental health problems among Asian college students, we decided to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of mental health services and help-seeking behaviors in Vietnamese universities. By conducting this study, we hope to contribute to current literature on the factors that contribute to professional mental health taking behavior of college students in Vietnam as well as suggest strategies to reduce possible barriers that prevent them from seeking professional help. Design: We first conducted a pilot study to test the reliability and validity of our measurements. We then made necessary adjustments and distributed the final questionnaires to a university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Collected data was analyzed through exploratory factor analysis.   Results: Among the three measurements of psychological openness, help-seeking propensity, and indifference to stigma, results indicated that the model explains students’ help-seeking intention reasonably well than others. Conclusions: Using theory of planned behavior, this study aims at examining predictors of professional mental health seeking behavior among college students in Vietnam. Our findings indicate that help-seeking propensity significantly influences Vietnamese students’ intention to seek professional healthcare. Through this study, we suggest some guidance to the school administrators the factors that encourage students to take professional mental care.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China, spread nationwide and then onto many other countries between December 2019 and early 2020. The implementation of strict quarantine measures in Vietnam has kept a large number of people in isolation and has eventually put the disease under control. Social and physical distancing turned to be an efficient way of slowing the spread of disease and stopping chains of transmission of COVID-19 as well as preventing new ones from appearing (World Health Organization, 2020). Analyzing the World Health Organization (WHO) data, we could see a clear difference in the reported numbers between Vietnam, a developing country, and the USA, one of the leading developed countries in the western hemisphere. We tried to address the question if there are factors that helped local governments to implement helpful rules. We argue that Eastern Asian cultural traits played a role in reducing the spread of COVID-19. We recommend to take this commentary paper, and further research those cultural factors that positively affected the slowdown of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam.

Prior executive compensation studies overlooked the endogeneity of firm performance and the simultaneity of managerial discretion, firm performance, and CEO pay. To overcome these two shortcomings, we propose a novel simultaneous equations system model to investigate the cause-and-effect relationships among research & development (R&D), advertising, firm performance, and CEO compensation, which are jointly affected by CEO’s tenure, age, ownership, firm size, risk, and industry. Although the feedback loops are positive between firm performance and CEO pay and between advertising and firm performance, the feedback loop is negative between R&D and firm performance. Firm size has a direct and indirect effect on R&D, advertising, firm performance, and CEO pay. Large firm size may entice CEOs to invest excessively in R&D, leading to poor performance and low pay. Our study implies that the positive relationship between firm performance and CEO pay depends upon the appropriateness of the strategic choices that CEOs make.