TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Measuring psychological distress among Australians using an online survey
JO  - Australian journal of psychology
A1  - Klein, Jack W.
A1  - Tyler‐Parker, Garrett
A1  - Bastian, Brock
SP  - 276
EP  - 282
VL  - 72
IS  - 3
N2  - OBJECTIVE To compare estimated levels of psychological distress in the Australian population as measured by online versus face-to-face survey methodologies. <br><br>METHOD Kessler Psychological Distress Scale scores from a nationally representative online survey of 955 Australians were compared to results from the 2014-2015 and 2017-2018 National Healthy Surveys, which were conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. <br><br>RESULTS Australians in the online survey reported levels of psychological distress that were significantly higher than those that completed the face-to-face National Health Surveys. This difference was greatest among respondents aged 18 to 34 years. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS These results can likely be attributed to the effect of conducting the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale via a face-to-face interview versus an online survey. There are compelling reasons to believe that online surveys elicit more honest responses on sensitive issues, while face-to-face surveys are prone to social desirability bias. This suggests that Australian psychological distress may have been systematically under-estimated in previous research.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0004-9530
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12283
ID  - ref1
ER  -