Distress of tertiary education students in Australia during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

Objective This project sought to characterize levels of distress in Australian tertiary education students during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Methods Advertisements were placed on multiple participant recruitment and student run websites associated with various tertiary institutions. Level of overall distress was assessed with the K‐10 so that comparisons could be made with previous research. A total of 1072 tertiary education students 18 years or older participated in the study. Results 70.9% of tertiary education students studying in Australia displayed elevated levels of psychological distress during the pandemic, with 23.01% of the sample reporting extreme levels of distress. Conclusions More tertiary education students experienced severe distress during the COVID‐19 pandemic than adults in the general population, as well as before the pandemic. Implications: Services are needed to help tertiary education students cope with elevated levels of distress associated during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Predictors of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction among Australian teachers.

“…Descriptive analyses were conducted, and three hierarchical multiple regression models were used to identify the influence of gender, age, years working in schools, exposure to student trauma, teachers' personal mental health history, personal trauma history, trauma training, and perceived knowledge and confidence in dealing with trauma-impacted students on levels of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress of teachers. The two participants who identified themselves as neither man nor woman were excluded from further analyses due to the small sample size (Tuck et al, 2023).…”