Investigating psychological distress, engagement, resilience, and achievement in first-year university students

Psychological distress has been associated with poor academic engagement and achievement. Although studies have examined relationships between psychological distress, resilience, social engagement, academic engagement and academic achievement, no study has investigated the joint relationship between all these constructs. The current study aimed to address this gap, investigating the mediating role of resilience and social engagement and examining the role of resilience and social engagement in predicting psychological distress among first-year university students. A partial mediation model was hypothesised and evaluated. A non-clinical sample of 456 (338 female) university students consented for their in-tutorial data to be accessed. Both social engagement and resilience negatively correlated with psychological distress, however, none of these variables correlated with academic engagement or achievement. As such, the preconditions to test our model were not met so our hypothesised model was not supported. Instead, a post hoc hierarchical multiple linear regression was performed to evaluate the strongest correlates of psychological distress in students. The current study demonstrated that resilience in the form of perception of self, and social engagement in the form of relationships with other students, were the strongest correlates of reduced psychological distress. Directions for future research, limitations, and clinical implications are discussed.