Abstract
PurposeMental health is as important as physical health and new university entrants report high prevalence of depression. In open and distance learning (ODL), students must manage both work and studies. Those who are unable to effectively balance these aspects may experience negative outcomes such as dropping out, distress and physical health problems. Therefore, the study aims to investigate psychological distress amongst distance-learning undergraduate students to gather evidence for recommending necessary interventions.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study was conducted using depression, anxiety, stress scale (DASS-21). Participants were undergraduate students from the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL). The students' socio-demographic details, history of physical and mental illnesses were also recorded.FindingsAccording to scoring, 51% of the sample was categorised as “psychologically distressed” relating to the anxiety levels they reported whilst depression (35%) and stress remained (20%) at low levels. The three-factor structure of DASS-21 was also confirmed with reliability scores of 0.8 obtained for all three sub-scales.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations were low-response rate (less than 50%) and inability to provide causal explanations for psychological distress. Further research could address these.Practical implicationsThe current research identified anxiety as a psychologically distressing factor for ODL students with the use of a reliable screening tool. Therefore, exploring reasons and interventions to help reduce anxiety could be developed.Social implicationsMajority of distance learners are contributing to a country's economy whilst learning to improve their current socio-economic status. Therefore, addressing these negative impacts is important.Originality/valueThe study explored ODL students' psychological distress and highlighted the need to identify causes and development of support systems to enhance mental well-being.
Highlights
Introduction and overview According to theWorld Health Organization (WHO), mental health is one of the most ignored areas in the field of public health and there are almost one billion people who suffer from a mental disorder (WHO, 2020)
Nearly 51% of students reported anxiety-related emotions; but from those identified as psychologically distressed, majority scores were at moderate levels than severe or extremely severe levels. This was further explored through their existing mental health conditions as they responded to a question asking them “have you ever suffered from a mental disorder?” The results showed that 22 (7.4%) males and 40 (5.5%) females answered they were suffering from a mental disorder
The discussion will focus on presenting the similar results of DASS-21 scale, as one of the key objectives in this study was to validate the use of DASS-21 as a standardised psychometric tool for identifying psychological distress amongst university students
Summary
World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is one of the most ignored areas in the field of public health and there are almost one billion people who suffer from a mental disorder (WHO, 2020). Mental health has been recognised within the standard definition of health as health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 2020). Published in Asian Association of Open Universities Journal. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http:// creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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