The prevalence of psychological distress in an Australian TAFE sample and the relationships between psychological distress, emotion-focused coping and academic success

ABSTRACT

Objective

This study investigated the baseline prevalence of general psychological distress reported by students in a regional Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Institute in Australia. In addition, the relationship between psychological distress, emotion-focused coping and academic success at the end of one semester of study was explored.

Method

Three hundred and four participants (M = 32.00, SD = 13.12) completed measures of psychological distress (Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, 21 item) and emotion-focused coping (Coping in Stressful Situations Checklist). Academic success (i.e., module completion rate at the end of the semester) was also quantified.

Results

Consistent with university samples, the results suggest that TAFE students have higher levels of psychological distress when compared with normative data. Participants with higher levels of distress also reported applying emotion-focused coping strategies, and had reduced academic success at the end of the semester. The relationship between distress and academic success was mediated by emotion-focused coping.

Conclusions

This study serves to increase awareness about the possibility of an elevated prevalence of psychological distress in vocational TAFE students, their self-reported use of maladaptive emotion-focused coping strategies, and the relationship with academic outcomes. The findings also suggest potential targets for intervention with this population.

KEY POINTS

What is already known about this topic:

(1) Recent research indicates that Australian tertiary students have a higher prevalence of psychological distress than the general population.

(2) Psychological distress has been found to be associated with poorer academic outcomes and the application of less adaptive coping strategies.

(3) The majority of research has been conducted using university samples, and minimal research has been undertaken in the Vocational Education and Training sector, despite its prominence in Australian post-secondary education.

What this study adds:

(1) Consistent with research conducted in university samples, this study indicated that a sample of TAFE students reported higher levels of psychological distress when compared with normative data.

(2) Higher levels of distress were associated with the application of emotion-focused coping strategies, as well as reduced academic success at the end of the semester.

(3) The relationship between psychological distress and academic success was mediated by emotion-focused coping.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic success
• Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET)
• coping
• prevalence
• psychological distress
• Technical and Further Education (TAFE)

Consistently higher prevalence rates of mental-health problems have been found in tertiary student samples compared with general community samples. Of concern, 50% of American college students (N = 90,666) from 141 post-secondary institutions reported being overwhelmed with anxiety during the previous 12 months, and 31% reported being so depressed that it was difficult to function (American College Health Association, 2012). Systematic reviews of published research have found tertiary students to have higher rates of anxiety and depression than the general population or age-matched peers (e.g., Dyrbye et al., 2006; Ibrahim, Kelly, Adams, & Ibrahim et al., 2013), and these findings are consistent with elevated student prevalence rates internationally (e.g., Andrews & Wilding, 2004; Stewart-Brown et al., 2000; Wong et al., 2006).

Prevalence of psychological distress in student samples

Elevations of depression, stress and anxiety are often referred to generically as psychological or emotional distress (Drapeau et al., 2011). Psychological distress is extensively applied as a measure of mental health, is recognised to often precede more serious mental-health conditions, and has great relevance for education providers (Deasy et al., 2014). There is an increasing concern regarding the level of psychological distress experienced by tertiary students in Australia. This concern was highlighted at a National Summit on the Mental Health of Tertiary Students (Norton et al., 2011). Consistent with the increased prevalence rates internationally, the above research indicates that Australian tertiary students have a higher rate of psychological distress than the general population. More than half the students presenting to a Queensland University health service were assessed as experiencing mild to very high levels of psychological distress (Stallman, 2008). These results were replicated at four other university health services, and the results indicate a much higher rate of psychological distress than the general population (Stallman & Shochet, 2009). While these studies were conducted within primary care settings, similar elevations have been reported across various Australian post-secondary student populations. For instance, a study of South Australian university students across four teaching faculties (N = 955), found that 48% of participants reported elevated psychological distress compared to 11% of an aged-matched population comparison group (Leahy et al., 2010). Similarly, Stallman (2010) found that 83.9% of the university student cohort reported elevated levels of psychological distress compared to 29% of the general population in a sample of 6,479 students from two Queensland Universities. Furthermore, 19.2% of the respondents’ scores were found to be suggestive of serious mental illness and 64.7% indicative of mild to moderate psychological distress. More recently, similar high rates of psychological distress have been found amongst students of a large Melbourne university. With a sample of 5,061 students, W. Larcombe et al. (2016) found that the distress level of the students was higher than that of the general population, with 25% reporting high levels of distress.

The above research (e.g., W. Larcombe et al., 2016; Leahy et al., 2010; Stallman & Shochet, 2009; Stallman, 2010) suggests that Australian university students are a high-risk population. Several reasons for the higher prevalence rates have been proposed. The psychological, social and academic demands associated with engagement in post-secondary education may aggravate pre-existing symptoms or precipitate the development of mental-health issues (Stallman, 2008). In addition to educational demands, other reasons such as workload, financial concerns and sleep deprivation have been postulated as contributing to students’ depression and anxiety (Dyrbye et al., 2006). Managing concurrent commitments of employment, family life and study may also create difficulties for mature students, while younger students may also face developmental challenges (Stallman, 2008). Young adulthood is also a common age of onset for many mental disorders, with the majority of adult diagnoses identified by 24 years of age (Kessler et al., 2005).

Psychological distress and academic outcomes

Psychological distress has been found to be associated with poorer academic outcomes and educational achievement (Rothon et al., 2009). Stallman (2008) found that university students (N = 384) with high levels of distress had an average of 8 days in the preceding 4 weeks where they were unable to study or work, and an additional 9 days of reduced capacity. In a large scale follow up study, Stallman (2010) found significantly lower grade point averages in groups that scored highly on measures of psychological distress (N = 6,479). Higher levels of psychological distress were also associated with increased disability, and lower participation in study and activities of daily living. Similarly, Stallman and Shochet (2009) found that days out of work or study more than doubled with every increment of psychological distress, with participants experiencing very high levels of distress reporting an average of 14.98 days lost due to disability in the preceding 4 weeks. In addition to having impairments in academic performance, students with mental health issues have also been found to have difficulty with relationships and socialisation (Verger et al., 2010), which are generally part of the educational process.

All of the above research findings (e.g., Rothon et al., 2009; Stallman, 2008; Stallman & Shochet, 2009), suggest higher levels of psychological distress in tertiary students may be associated with reduced academic outcomes, increased disability and loss of capability. The prevalence of psychological distress in post-secondary student populations presents challenges not only for students but also for educators and training providers, as training providers are required to respond to non-educational psycho-social issues (Kadison, 2004; Vivekenanda et al., 2011). For instance, the Accreditation Standards for Psychology Programs (2019) includes a requirement that “students are informed of the availability of personal and professional support services, and are equipped with skills to adequately maintain their own well-being” (Standard 4.5, p. 9).

Coping styles

An important variable for student success may be the way in which a student copes with stressors. Studying is a stressful process for most people, with the required academic, social, and environmental changes, in addition to pressures from any developmental challenges and familial responsibilities (Stallman, 2008). Such demands can be aggravated by financial strain, constantly assessed performance, uncertainty about the future and engagement issues (Norton et al., 2011). The way in which students cope with these stressors throughout their education can have a substantial effect on their mental health and wellbeing, as well as academic progression (Byrd & McKinney, 2012). It is also likely that higher levels of distress are related to the application of less effective coping strategies (Deasy et al., 2014).

Coping styles can be defined as characteristic cognitive and behavioural efforts to regulate stressful situations (Cosway et al., 2000). As per traditional coping theory, “coping is the effort to manage psychological stress” (p. 111), thus, coping is considered to be a response to emotional arousal (Lazarus, 2006). Coping is also considered to be a process, whereby emotion is related to the coping response, and the “outcome in turn determines the individual’s emotional state both in the ongoing interaction and in future interactions” (Frydenberg, 2014, p. 84). Thus, the implementation of the coping strategies employed may be linked to increases in emotion, which may require additional coping efforts. Newer theories of coping, such as the Health Theory of Coping, promote a similar sequence, defining coping “as the cognitive and behavioural reactions to reduce unpleasant emotions” (Stallman, 2020a, p. 296).

One of the most common types of coping styles that has prevailed in the literature is emotion-focused coping (Lazarus, 2006). Emotion-focused coping involves the application of thoughts, actions and strategies that are aimed at reducing distress and emotions, rather than changing the actual situation (Struthers et al., 2000). Despite the emergence of other types of coping and structural frameworks (e.g., Skinner et al., 2003), the emotion-focused or emotion-orientated coping construct is still pertinent, as evidenced by its continued prevalence in recent research (e.g., Brands et al., 2018; Imran et al., 2020; Thomas et al., 2017; Vungkhanching et al., 2017).

In general, higher levels of psychological distress have been found to be associated with emotion-focused coping (Clifton et al., 2008; Cosway et al., 2000; Endler et al., 1994; Penley et al., 2002; McWilliams et al., 2003; Struthers et al., 2000; Vungkhanching et al., 2017). In a study investigating individual and institutional variables related to students’ mental health, coping abilities emerged as the strongest intrapersonal influence on mental health, above other individual capacities including motivation, self-esteem, academic self-confidence, effort, and belief in skills and abilities (Byrd & McKinney, 2012).

Research has started to investigate the relationship between coping and academic outcomes of university students, and results suggest that emotion-focused coping is related to reduced academic achievement (e.g., GPA) for university students (Austin et al., 2010; MacCann et al., 2011; Thomas et al., 2017). However, research has not yet considered the relationship between psychological distress, emotion-focused coping and academic outcomes such as completion rates. Based on traditional coping theory, people experience emotional distress and consequently engage in emotional coping with an aim of reducing emotional arousal (Frydenberg, 2014; Lazarus, 2006). Consequently, it may be argued that fluctuations in psychological distress promote fluctuations in emotion-focused coping, which, in turn, promote fluctuations in academic outcomes. Thus, a hypothetical causal chain may be proposed whereby an independent variable (X), psychological distress, leads to changes in a mediator (M), emotion-focused coping, which leads to changes in a dependent variable (Z), academic outcomes, thus X → M → Z.

Vocational education and training context

The majority of the research to date has been conducted in university populations (e.g., Stallman, 2010; Stallman & Shochet, 2009). However, universities represent only one training provider within the Australian Tertiary Education and Training framework. A substantial proportion of Australian tertiary education and training is also provided by Vocational Education and Training (VET). In 2016, for example, there were 1.457 million students enrolled in Higher Education (Department of Education & Training [DET], 2017), and approximately 4.2 million enrolments in VET courses (NCVER, 2017). Nationally, a large proportion of enrolments in VET courses are provided by the publically funded Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Institutes (NCVER, 2013). Of all Australian training providers in both VET and Higher Education, TAFE New South Wales (TAFE NSW) is recognised as one of the largest training providers, accounting for over 543,000 of these 2016 enrolments (TAFE NSW, 2017).

Demographically, Australian TAFE students vary greatly from the university cohort and international college student populations. While the majority of university students still enrol soon after finishing high school, TAFE students have a much wider age range, and greater diversity in stage of career and life (Christie, 2009). Only approximately 40% of TAFE students were aged between 15 and 24 years in 2012, while approximately 60% of university students were in this age bracket (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). The average age of a TAFE student is approximately 31 years, while that of an undergraduate university student is less than 21 years (Christie, 2009). Other characteristics highlight the differences between these cohorts. For example, TAFE students are more likely to be socially disadvantaged than university students, with the Higher Education population generally having higher socio-economic levels than VET students (Foley, 2007; Stone, 2012). VET students are also more likely to live in rural or regional areas (Foley, 2007) or have disabilities (Stone, 2012).

It is difficult to estimate the prevalence of mental-health problems in VET, as there is a dearth of research in this area, and a reluctance to disclose (Venville & Street, 2012). Approximately 12% of TAFE NSW students identify as having a disability (Department of Education and Training (DET), 2017), although only 1.2% of students identify as having a mental illness (Venville & Street, 2012). However, it is likely that these estimates underrepresent the proportion of TAFE students who are experiencing psychological distress. As part of a larger study on help-seeking behaviour of students within a regional NSW TAFE Institute, Wilson (2010) reported that preliminary analyses revealed the TAFE student sample “had moderate levels of general psychological distress symptoms” (p. 67). The sample was quite small (N = 109), and the prevalence rate was not explicitly discussed within the publication; however, these preliminary results support the need for prevalence research specifically within TAFE student samples. The need for more research is further highlighted by Cvetkovski et al. (2012) who found both TAFE and university students reported a higher prevalence of moderate levels of psychological distress than the general population. Interestingly, the difference in prevalence between students and the general population was not statistically significant for high levels of distress. However, this research was limited to retrospective, epidemiological survey responses, and it is not known at what stage of the academic year these responses were gathered. Nonetheless, these studies provide some indication that the TAFE student population may differ from the general population, and highlights the need for more research in the area.

The present study

The current study aimed to investigate the baseline prevalence of general psychological distress reported by students in a regional TAFE Institute at the commencement of an academic semester. The relationship between psychological distress, emotion-focused coping and academic success at the end of one semester of study was explored. It was hypothesised that:

1. higher levels of psychological distress will be endorsed by the TAFE sample compared to normative data;

2. psychological distress will be positively associated with emotion-focused coping strategies;

3. psychological distress at the start of the semester will be negatively associated with academic success at the end of one semester of study;

4. emotion-focused coping strategies will be negatively associated with academic success at the end of one semester of study; and

5. the relationship between psychological distress at the start of the semester and academic success at the end of one semester will be mediated by emotion-focused coping strategies.

Method

Participants

An a priori power analysis was conducted using G*Power 3 (Faul et al., 2007) to determine the sample size required to conduct a simple mediation analysis consisting of one IV, one mediator and one DV. The calculation, based on an alpha of .05, a target power of .80 and an f² of .15, indicated that a minimum of 98 participants were required.

Participants were 304 enrolled students from a Regional TAFE Institute in New South Wales, Australia. The age of participants ranged from 18 years to 70 years, with a mean of 32 years (SD = 13.12). All participants were enrolled in a vocational certificate course at Certificate III (50%), Certificate IV (25%) or Diploma (25%) level. The majority of students were female (79%), studying full time (71%) and not undertaking any concurrent paid employment (62%).

All participants were undertaking some face to face tuition as part of their studies. The majority of participants (76%) were enrolled as internal students and attending training on campus as the primary delivery mode, while 24% of participants were engaged in some flexible or external component as well. All measures, except academic success, were completed at the start of the semester.

Measures

Demographics

Participants provided their age, gender, number of dependants, course name and level, study load and course delivery mode. The importance of their relationship with their teachers and results achieved in prior studies were also rated. Participants indicated the number of hours per week they were currently engaged in employment, whether they were actively seeking employment, and the level of qualifications they had previously completed and commenced.

Generalised psychological distress

Participants completed the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale, 21 item (DASS-21) form to indicate levels of agreement with symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. This measure is a short version of Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1995) 42-item self-report Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). The DASS-21 has been shown to possess adequate construct validity, and have high scale reliabilities (Henry & Crawford, 2005). Features unique to each construct are isolated in the DASS-21 Depression scale (e.g., low positive affect), the Anxiety scale (e.g., hyper-arousal) and the Stress scale (e.g., tension) (Antony et al., 1998; Henry & Crawford, 2005), with seven items assessing each subscale. Participants rate how well each statement applied to them over the last week on a 4-point scale, where higher scores indicate greater agreement. The DASS-21 has a cleaner factor structure and smaller inter-factor correlations compared to the full 42-item version (Antony et al., 1998), and excludes items recognized as problematic (Henry & Crawford, 2005). Although the validity of the three subscales has been established, there is also strong support for the use of the DASS-21’s total score as a measure of general psychological distress (Osman et al., 2012; Szabo, 2011). Good estimates of internal consistency for the DASS-21 scale scores have been found (Depression scale α = 0.88 to 0.94, Anxiety scale α = 0.82 to 0.87, Stress scale α = 0.9 to 0.91, and Total score α = 0.93) (Antony et al., 1998; Henry & Crawford, 2005). Similar Cronbach alphas were found in this study (Anxiety α = .86, Depression α = .89, Stress α = .86, and Total scores α = .95). The total DASS-21 score is used as a measure of psychological distress in this study.

Coping styles

Participants completed a multidimensional dispositional coping measure, the Coping in Stressful Situations (CISS) checklist (Endler & Parker, 1990). The CISS is a 48-item self-report measure that assesses ways of coping with stress, with 16 items per subscale. This instrument assesses the frequency of engaging in task-oriented, emotion-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping activities when a difficult or stressful situation is encountered. Respondents are asked to rate how frequently they react according to each statement on a 5-point scale, with higher scores indicating greater usage of that strategy. Only the emotion-orientated subscale was used in the present study, and the items ask respondents to rate self-oriented, emotional reactions including emotional response, preoccupation and blame. The measure is widely used and has demonstrated sound psychometric properties (Endler & Parker, 1990). For the present study the Cronbach’s alpha for the Emotion subscale was α = .90, which is consistent with the results of previous studies (Endler & Parker, 1990, 1999).

Academic success

Participants provided written informed consent for their academic record to be accessed at the end of the semester. Academic success is challenging to measure at TAFE, as the majority of units are competency based and graded pass/fail. As such, there is no grade point average (GPA) type of score available, which would provide an indication of academic achievement. Module completion rate is accepted as an effective measure of academic success in vocational education and training (Learned, 2010). For this study, module completion rate at the end of the semester was used as the measure of academic success. The percentage of modules completed during that semester was calculated by dividing the number of modules that the student successfully completed by the number of modules enrolled in for that semester.

Procedure

Ethics approvals from Charles Sturt University and the TAFE Institute were obtained prior to commencement of the study. Students who were enrolled in a Certificate III, Certificate IV or Diploma within the Regional TAFE NSW Institute were invited to participate, and participants were provided time during class to complete the measures.

Results

To test the first hypothesis, this TAFE student sample’s level of endorsement of symptoms of overall psychological distress, along with the anxiety, depression and stress subscales, were compared to normative data. Based on Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1995) cut-off scores, the proportion of responses in the lower ranges (normal and mild categories), and the higher ranges (moderate, severe or extremely severe categories) are compared with normative proportions for each DASS subscale and the Total score in Table 1. The level of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms were much higher than the normative data, with 30.2% of responses on the depression subscale, 33.2% of responses on the anxiety subscale, and 18.4% of responses on the stress subscale in the higher ranges (compared to 13% in these ranges for each subscale in the DASS normative data). There were more than double the proportion of responses in the higher ranges for depression symptoms, and two and a half times the proportion of responses in the higher ranges for anxiety symptoms compared to normative data.

Table 1. The proportion of responses in the lower ranges and higher ranges compared to DASS norms (N = 304)

	Depression	Depression norms*	Anxiety	Anxiety norms*	Stress	Stress norms*
Normal/mild	69.8%	87%	66.8%	87%	81.6%	87%
Moderate/Severe/Extremely Severe	30.2%	13%	33.2%	13%	18.4%	13%

Note.* Normative data based on Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1995) cut-off scores

A single sample t test was conducted to compare the overall level of psychological distress to normative data. The mean level of psychological distress (DASS Total Score) (M = 25.11, SD = 25.37) was significantly higher than Crawford and Henry’s (2003) normative Total DASS score (M = 18.38, SD = 18.82), with a mean difference of 6.73, t (343) = 4. 15, p < .001. These results indicate that the TAFE sample endorsed significantly higher levels of psychological distress than the normative data.

To examine the relationship between psychological distress and emotion-focused coping (Hypothesis 2), a linear regression was conducted. All assumptions were satisfied, and the DASS Total score was entered as the independent variable with the CISS Emotion-focused subscale as the dependent variable. The model was significant, with the DASS Total score accounting for 34.9% of the variability in CISS Emotion-focused coping R² = 0.349, adjusted R² = 0.347, F (1, 314) = 168.03, p < .001.

To test the third hypothesis, a linear regression was conducted with DASS Total score as the independent variable and academic success as the dependent variable. The model was significant, with DASS Total Score predicting units completed at the end of one semester (F (1, 288) = 12.593, p < .001), with an R² of .042. Thus, distress levels at the start of the semester were able to significantly predict the proportion of units completed at the end of the semester; however, the amount of variance accounted for was small.

To assess the fourth hypothesis, a linear regression was conducted with the CISS emotion-focused coping as the IV, and academic success as the DV. As predicted, the model was significant, with the CISS Emotion subscale predicting the percent of units completed at the end of one semester R² = 0.031, adjusted R² = 0.28, F (1, 314) = 10.123, p < .01. These results suggest a small but significant association between the endorsement of emotion-focused coping strategies and reduced units completed at the end of the semester.

The fifth hypothesis was evaluated using model 4 of Hayes’ PROCESS 3.4 macro, employing 5,000 bootstrap resamples (Hayes, 2018). Psychological distress was entered as the IV, academic success was entered as the DV, and emotion-focused coping was entered as the mediator. The mediation model accounted for significant variance in academic success, R² = .05, F (2, 299) = 7.49, p < .001. According to Cohen’s (1988) conventions, this combined effect may be considered “small” (i.e., f² = .05). The hypothesis that emotion-focused coping would mediate the relationship between psychological distress and academic success, was supported by the model, ab = −.13 [95% CI −.26, −.00], thus, LLCI/UPCI ≠ 0. Table 2 presents the model’s unstandardised (B) regression coefficients, 95% confidence intervals and R² values.

Table 2. Mediation model coefficients for psychological distress, emotion-focused coping, and academic success (N = 302)

Variable	B [LLCI, ULCI]	SE
DV = Emotion focused-coping (R^2 = .34***) Constant Psychological distress DV = Academic success (R^2 = .05**) Constant Psychological distress Emotion-focused coping	2.20 [2.10, 2.31] 0.10 [0.02, 0.02]*** 90.88 [75.22, 106.53] -0.15 [−0.37, 0.63] -7.01 [−13.54, −0.50]*	0.05 0.00 7.95 0.11 3.31

* p < .05. ** p < .001. *** p < .0001.

Total effect: b = −0.29, p = .001, 95% CI [−0.46, −0.11], β = −0.18

Direct effect: b = −0.15, p = .165, 95% CI [−0.37, 0.06], β = −0.10

Indirect effect: b = −0.13, 95% CI [−0.26, −0.00], β = −0.09

Discussion

Overall, the hypotheses were all supported. In relation to the first hypothesis, the results suggest the TAFE Certificate III, IV and Diploma student sample reported higher rates of anxiety, depression, stress and overall psychological distress than the general population. Notably, the proportion of responses in the higher ranges on the anxiety subscale were two and a half times that of the normative data and the proportion of responses in the higher ranges for depressive symptoms was double that of the normative data. These results suggest that TAFE students enrolled in Certificate III and above may have higher levels of distress than the general population, which is consistent with findings relating to university students both internationally and in Australia (e.g., Andrews & Wilding, 2004; American College Health Association, 2012; Dyrbye et al., 2006; Ibrahim et al., 2013; Stallman, 2008, 2010; Stallman & Shochet, 2009). These results lend support to the national concern for the mental health of Australian post-secondary students emphasised at a National Summit (Norton et al., 2011). Given the prominence of the VET sector within post-secondary education in Australia, and the demographic differences between VET students and the university cohort, it is essential that research is conducted within this population.

Interestingly, students who were also currently employed endorsed significantly lower levels of psychological distress than students who were not engaged in employment. This finding suggests that psychological distress is not necessarily related to the pressure of additional stressors or workload. Instead, the higher levels of psychological distress reported by students who were not engaged in employment may be related to other socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., financial status), or specific cognitions (e.g., self-efficacy or belief about employability). However, the reason for this finding requires further empirical investigation as the relationship between employment and psychological distress has been found to be complex (Marchand et al., 2012).

As predicted in Hypothesis 2, the results indicate that students who have higher levels of distress reported using more emotion-focused coping strategies. Noteworthy was the large size of the association between psychological distress and emotion-focuses coping. This finding indicates that students who report higher levels of psychological distress tend also to report that they primarily try to reduce and manage the intensity of their emotions, rather than attempting to change the situation (i.e., problem-solve). These results are consistent with research in different populations, which has found relationships between poorer mental-health outcomes and emotion-focused coping (Penley et al., 2002).

As predicted in the third hypothesis, higher levels of psychological distress at the start of the semester were related to poorer academic outcomes at the end of the semester. Thus, higher levels of distress were associated with the completion of significantly less units at the end of one semester. These findings are consistent with previous research in higher education samples (Rothon et al., 2009). This association suggests that TAFE students who experience higher levels of distress are more likely to withdraw from more units in a semester. This is concerning in the context of the findings of the first hypothesis, where significantly more students reported higher levels of distress than the general population.

In support of the fourth hypothesis, this study found an association between the application of emotion-focused coping strategies and academic success at the end of the semester. Students who endorsed higher levels of emotion-focused coping completed significantly less units at the end of the semester. This finding is consistent with previous research (Clifton et al., 2008), and suggests that it is likely that the application of emotion-focused coping strategies is detrimental to educational outcomes. These findings highlight that coping style is an important component of managing study and emotions within the academic context (Byrd & McKinney, 2012).

Furthermore, this study found that emotion-focused coping mediated the relationship between psychological distress and academic success, thus, supporting the final hypothesis. That is, the confidence interval associated with the indirect pathway through emotion-focused coping did not include zero. More specifically, these findings indicate that as psychological distress increases, the use of emotion-focused coping increases and, in turn, academic success decreases. Indeed, these results highlight the potential benefit of educating students regarding the application of more effective coping strategies when faced with high levels of psychological distress. However, we note that our cross-sectional design precludes us from making causal inferences.

The results of this study suggest that TAFE students may benefit from quality support services and interventions aimed at reducing psychological distress. Given the higher prevalence rate of psychological distress that has been found in this study, interventions that focus on identifying and reducing distress may be beneficial in enhancing academic outcomes. Access to support services and evidenced-based interventions to assist students to reduce psychological distress and its effects are crucial in order to increase the likelihood that training commenced will be successfully completed. Furthermore, interventions that specifically help students to develop effective coping strategies, such as those that are task or problem-focused rather than emotion-focused, may benefit academic achievement (Clifton et al., 2008). TAFE Psychologists could assist students to assess their coping style, and provide guidance to help them apply more adaptive coping strategies by decreasing reliance on maladaptive coping, and teaching skills to implement new ways of coping in the TAFE context. Limitations and suggestions for future research

A limitation of this study is the single administration of the measure of psychological distress. The measures for this study were only administered at the start of the academic session in order to obtain a baseline measurement of agreement with symptoms of psychological distress, and to replicate similar studies conducted in university samples (e.g., Wendy Larcombe et al., 2015; Leahy et al., 2010; Stallman, 2010). However, emerging research suggests the possible value in repeated measures. Shrout et al. (2018) conducted a preliminary analysis of repeated measures and found that scores on negative symptoms measures reduced over repeated administrations. The authors concluded that this is due to initial elevations rather than a reduction over time, but state that one possible mechanism “that we believe to be promising is a learning mechanism, whereby increasing familiarity with a measure leads to less extreme reporting” (p. 7). Such mechanisms are well established in neuropsychological assessment, whereby familiarity with items leads to practice effects or improvements in scores with repeated administrations (Calamia et al., 2013a, 2013b; Duff et al., 2012; McCaffrey et al., 2000). While such possible mechanisms require more research with other types of measures, Shrout et al.’s (2018) findings highlight the possible value in repeated assessment of negative symptoms. As such, future research that assesses possible fluctuations in the psychological distress of TAFE students throughout the academic year is warranted.

Repeated measurements would also facilitate the investigation of test–retest reliability. The 1-month test–retest reliability of a different screening measure of psychological distress (the K-10) was recently reported to be unacceptable in a university sample (Stallman, 2020b). However, as the instrument used in this study to measure psychological distress (the DASS-21) “is intended to measure a state rather than trait, it would be expected that test–retest stability would be low” (Jiang et al., 2020, p. 7). Thus, variability between administrations could be expected, as the measure of psychological distress used in this study is a measure of state (rather than trait) symptoms, and the specific instructions to participants refers to agreement within the 7 days prior only. Nevertheless, other studies have utilised the test–retest reliability of the DASS-21 in longitudinal studies (e.g., Watson et al., 2016); however, it would be useful to consider if fluctuations in scores occur between repeated administrations of the DASS-21 when symptoms remain stable (Jiang et al., 2020). As such, this further highlights the need to consider multiple administrations of the measures. The participants in this study were drawn from students enrolled in Certificate III, IV and Diploma level courses, but within TAFE a large proportion of students are enrolled in lower level courses. Students enrolled in lower level courses are more likely to be from low socio-demographic backgrounds (Foley, 2007) and have disabilities (Stone, 2012), and may experience higher levels of distress in the educational process. Thus, it is possible that the proportion of students in courses lower than a Certificate III may have even higher levels of psychological distress. Another limitation of the current study is the reliance on self-report measures, although these are routinely used in psychological measurement and research (e.g., Leahy, 2010; Jiang et al., 2020; Stallman, 2010; Stallman & Shochet, 2009), given the requirement to access the internal nature of the participants’symptoms.

A further limitation of this study is performing a mediational analysis using cross-sectional data. However, as stated by Hayes (2018), “one can conduct a mediation analysis even if one cannot unequivocally establish causality given the limitations of one’s data collection and research design”, explaining that, “so long as we couch our causal claims with the required cautions and caveats given the nature of the data available, we can apply any mathematical method we want to understand and model relationships between variables” (p. 81). Therefore, caution must be exercised in interpreting these results given that an experimental or longitudinal design is required for one to make causal inferences.

Given the higher levels of psychological distress identified in this TAFE student sample, it is important that future research investigates the distress levels of TAFE students in all course levels, and identifies factors associated with these elevations. Interventions that aim to reduce psychological distress and teach adaptive coping strategies in TAFE student samples appear to be worthy of consideration.

One might argue that the relationship between psychological distress and emotion-focused coping is bi-directional. Thus, it may be prudent for future research to use a cross-lagged effect model to test this possible bidirectional effect (see, for example, Erhart et al., 2017). That is, one could test whether emotion-focused coping measured at t1 has an effect on distress measured at t2 and whether distress measured at t1 has an effect on emotion-focused coping measured at t2. If support was obtained for the two aforementioned effects, then this finding would be in support of a bi-directional effect.

Conclusion

The findings of this study support the growing concern for the psychological well-being of Australian post-secondary students, and the need for access to mental-health services (Stallman & Shochet, 2009). This research provides an important, initial platform to develop the enquiry into the mental health and wellbeing of vocational education students in Australia. Given the prominence of the vocational sector, further research with this population is essential.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nursing and Allied Health Scholarship and Support Scheme (NAHSS), administered by Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH).