Financial and caregivers’ stressors in Australian law students – a qualitative analysis

Abstract

Australian law students exhibit high levels of psychological distress compared to the general population. In 2013, The University of Sydney Law School conducted a survey to examine the level of distress in students, what factors were associated with their distress and what strategies might mitigate student distress. This article reports on the survey’s qualitative findings relating to financial stressors and care-giving responsibilities. The findings provide further insights into the context of financial stressors for law students and how they may undermine students’ candidacy. The study found that financial stress, work commitments, caring for dependents, illnesses and death in the family can be potential reasons for students suspending studies or withdrawing from their studies altogether. In view of the findings, possible solutions to alleviate stress and support students with their work–study and care-giving concerns are discussed.

Key words:

• Care-giving
• financial
• law student
• psychological distress
• qualitative study
• student wellness
• work–study balance

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Fiona Burns has declared no conflicts of interest.

Nerissa Soh has declared no conflicts of interest.

Rita Shackel has declared no conflicts of interest.

Garry Walter has declared no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study

Acknowledgements

We thank Isabelle Youssef, President of the Sydney University Law Society, and Mai Stringer, Peter Finneran and Pete Lead from the Faculty of Law for their assistance in participant recruitment and advice on student enrolments. We also thank Lucy Sarah Cameron, Judy Zhu and Shirley Huang for their research assistance.

Notes

1 Sent to subscribed students on 10 June 2013.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Discipline of Psychiatry, The University of Sydney.