Understanding Students’ Psychological Distress Complaints through Online Academic Advising Support

The purpose of the study is to investigate students’ psychological distress complaints through an online webbased
academic advisor support. This study employed a qualitative method. Data were gathered through indepth
anonymous consultation and interview which were conducted through online facilities, such as email,
WhatsApp, and telephone, to understand the students’ psychological distress complaints. The data, then,
were analyzed using the grounded theory approach through open, axial, and theoretical coding. The results of
this study showed that five main issues that caused psychological distress have been complained by students
through the online advising service centre. Those issues included feeling distress towards campus unfair
treatment, bureaucracy complexities, lack channel to express complaints, unfriendly academic advisors,
and opposite-sex advisors issue. This study concludes that the online advising support center can be used
to support students’ psychological relief because the system increases anonymity, reduce physical contact,
and avoid opposite sex barriers during psychological consultation. This study promotes the use of online
academic advising support to increase students’ intention to use an academic advising support in order to
reduce stress and promote students’ mental health.