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Measuring psychological distress among Australians using an online survey

Abstract Objective To compare estimated levels of psychological distress in the Australian population as measured by online versus face‐to‐face survey methodologies. 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. 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. 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.