City Research Online

Mental distress and its relationship to distance education students’ work and family roles

Waterhouse, P., Samra, R. & Lucassen, M. ORCID: 0000-0001-6958-3468 (2020). Mental distress and its relationship to distance education students’ work and family roles. Distance Education, 41(4), pp. 540-558. doi: 10.1080/01587919.2020.1821606

Abstract

To date, research concerning the work-family-study interface remains limited and has focused on younger students enrolled in campus-based courses. In this study, we used self-reported data from 318 distance education final-year undergraduates to examine, first of all, the associations between students’ levels of mental distress with their work and family roles. Secondly, we examined the associations between students’ levels of mental distress with their perceived levels of role conflict and role facilitation. We considered conflict and facilitation both in the direction from work to studying and from family to studying. We used multinomial regression to explore relationships, controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, and educational attainment at registration. Our study revealed unpaid caring responsibilities, reported work-study conflict, and family-study conflict were associated with an increased risk of reporting higher levels of mental distress, and work-study facilitation and family-study facilitation were associated with a lower risk of reporting higher levels of mental distress.

Publication Type: Article
Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Distance Education on 27 Sep 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1821606
Publisher Keywords: mental distress; distance education; work; family; students; higher education
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments: School of Health & Psychological Sciences
School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing
SWORD Depositor:
[thumbnail of Lucassen Mental.pdf]
Preview
Text - Accepted Version
Download (470kB) | Preview

Export

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Actions (login required)

Admin Login Admin Login