The University of Western Australia, UWA Law School, Australia.
Edith Cowan University, School of Arts and Humanities, Australia.
Int J Law Psychiatry. 2020 Nov-Dec;73:101631. doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2020.101631. Epub 2020 Oct 4.
There is a growing body of international research examining psychological distress in law students. Generally, the studies have tended to be either very narrow, focussing on a single law school, or very broad, targeting all law students regardless of their institutional affiliation. This study adds to the existing literature by examining the levels of psychological distress of law students at two quite different law schools in Australia. An online survey was used to assess self-reported emotional well-being, university appraisal, university belongingness, perceptions of competitiveness and supportiveness, perceived sources of pressure, and motivations for studying law in 225 law students. Consistent with prior research, the data reflect lower levels of well-being in law student participants compared to the general public. However, the factors that appear to affect the students' well-being differed slightly between the two participant cohorts. For the law school that caters more to mature age and online students, the students' perception of their overall law school experience, belongingness, and support are important factors. Whereas for the law school that caters more to high achieving younger students, the competitiveness and perceived lack of support within the law school environment appear to have a greater influence on the students' self-reported well-being. In addition, across both participant cohorts, self-imposed pressure was notably high. Overall, the results of the study reported in this article provide valuable insights into the external and internal factors underpinning the well-established heightened levels of psychological distress in Australian law students.
越来越多的国际研究关注法律学生的心理困扰。一般来说，这些研究要么非常狭隘，只关注单一的法学院，要么非常广泛，针对所有法律学生，而不论其所属院校。本研究通过考察澳大利亚两所截然不同的法学院的法律学生的心理困扰程度，为现有文献做出了贡献。研究采用在线调查的方式，评估了 225 名法律学生的情绪幸福感、对大学的评价、对大学的归属感、对竞争和支持的看法、感知压力的来源以及学习法律的动机。与之前的研究一致，数据反映出法律专业学生的幸福感水平低于普通公众。然而，影响学生幸福感的因素在两个参与者群体之间略有不同。对于更适合成年和在线学生的法学院，学生对整体法学院体验、归属感和支持的看法是重要因素。而对于更适合成绩优异的年轻学生的法学院，法学院环境中的竞争和感知到的缺乏支持似乎对学生的自我报告幸福感有更大的影响。此外，在两个参与者群体中，自我施加的压力都非常高。总的来说，本文报告的研究结果为理解支撑澳大利亚法律学生心理困扰程度较高的外部和内部因素提供了有价值的见解。
