Perceived psychological distress and learning barriers on emergency remote education: association with students’ motivation and resilience

: : Emergency remote education has become a critical learning platform that created changes in ways of attaining learning goals. This shift to a new learning platform posed a great challenge to students’ motivation and resilience in learning. This study aimed to analyze the students' learning barriers and psychological distress and their motivation and resilience in studying during the public health emergency. A descriptive-correlational research design was utilized to assess the research questions posed in this study. The respondents of the study were the two hundred thirty-eight (238) BEED students of Mindanao State University, General Santos City who were officially enrolled during the S.Y. 2021-2022. The researchers employed a stratified sampling technique in selecting the respondents for this study. Adapted questionnaires such as the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), Learning Barriers Questionnaire, Motivation to Learn Online Questionnaire (MLOQ), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), checked and validated by experts, were used to gather the needed data. Descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment-Correlation Coefficient were used to analyze and interpret the gathered data. In this study, the researchers found that psychological distress significantly influences the resilience of students, but it does not influence their motivation to learn. Results also revealed that the learning barriers significantly influence both motivation and resilience of the students. Replication of this study is highly recommended using qualitative research design and including other variables such as assessments and the engagements of students.


INTRODUCTION
The strong wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered the birth of a new normal in education. The changes in the school system included the closure of educational institutions worldwide, which had reached around 1.6 billion students from 194 countries (UNESCO, 2020). This sudden shift to a new learning platform poses today's most significant challenge to educational institutions. Among students who had studied on emergency remote education, 33% expressed they could not learn online rather than face-to-face, 44% saw no difference, and 23% revealed they know better in this setting (Talbert, 2020).
Research has shown that the rapid educational changes posed by the pandemic have impacted the learner's well-being (Plakhotnik, et al., 2021). For instance, the new set-up in education has escalated anxiety among students . Moreover, it has been reported that university students have experienced other health problems, specifically depression and eating disorders (Kohls et al., 2020). The adverse mental and emotional consequences of emergency remote education have potentially threatened the Bauya, Cacayan, students' holistic well-being and educational progress (Singh et al., 2020). Due to Covid-19, the students have also faced learning barriers, including learner motivation and social interaction (Mukhtar et al., 2020).
Previous studies have pointed out that the pandemic has affected students' lifestyles (Duraku & Hoxha, 2020;Labrague & Ballad, 2021;Baticulon et al., 2020). However, limited studies investigated their motivation and resilience levels despite the barriers and problems caused by the pandemic that focuses on future teachers. Therefore, the current study wanted to fill the gaps and deepen the knowledge of the learning barriers and psychological problems that university students may encounter, which could determine their motivation and resilience in studying emergency remote education. These and other related studies (Li et al., 2020;Zhai & Du, 2020) have pushed the researchers to explore the influence of Covid-19 on the students' psychological states and their well-being in general. Thus, this paper aimed to answer the research questions: 1) What is the perceived level of psychological distress of the students on emergency remote education ? 2) To what extent do students experience the learning barriers on emergency remote education? 3) What is the level of students' motivation for learning during the pandemic? 4) What is the level of students' emotional resilience during the pandemic? 5) Do the experienced psychological distress and learning barriers correlate with the motivation and resilience of students?.

Research Design
A descriptive-correlational research design was utilized to assess the research questions posed in this study: This method collected data in a detailed manner, and factual information was examined to describe the existing phenomena. A descriptive design describes the current status of a variable or phenomenon. The study does not begin with a hypothesis but typically develops after collecting data. A correlational study is a research method that involves measuring two or more variables and assessing the relationship between or among those variables (Stangor & Walinga, 2019 and resilience. Additionally, the researchers followed the stratified sampling method of Aoyama (1954) to get the sample size per year level. This indicates that the distribution of the sample means is fairly normally distributed. The entire population of the BEED students was also considered to provide equal opportunity for the respondents to participate in this study. Only those who are willing to participate in the survey received the survey questionnaire links.

Locale of the Study
The study was conducted at Mindanao State University. It covers 149.76-hectare land located at Barangay Fatima, General Santos City. The institution is one of the top-performing universities in Mindanao that produces globally competent individuals. This locale is suitable for this study since the researchers and respondents are from this school, particularly in the Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) Department, which will allow prompt and cost-effective data collection.
Due to the current social and physical constraints, the researchers were unable to conduct the survey in a face-to-face set-up and given that the students were in their respective locations, the researchers chose online surveys as the only suitable alternative at the time the study took place.

Instrument
The current study utilized four (4) different questionnaires to measure the students' psychological distress, learning barriers, motivation, and resilience, respectively.
The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) by Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) was an adapted instrument to measure the students' psychological distress levels. It is a set of three self-report scales designed to measure the emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress. Each of the three DASS-21 scales contains 7 items, divided into subscales with similar content. Each of the questions is rated from 0 to 3.
The learning barriers questionnaire was adapted from Muilenburg and Berge (2005) to measure the respondents' perceived learning barriers. It is a 45-item instrument that was classified into eight (8) factors: administrative and instructor issues, social interaction, academic skills, technical skills, learner motivation, time and support for studies, cost and access to the internet, and technical problems. Respondents will rate each barrier identified by Muilenburg & Berge (2005) according to the five-point Likert scale choices: 1-no barrier, 2-weak barrier, 3-moderate barrier, 4-strong barrier, and 5-very strong barrier.
The Motivation to Learn Online Questionnaire (MLOQ), adapted from Fowler (2018), is designed to assess differences in student motivation in online and traditional classes. Students will rate themselves on a 5point Likert scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." The Resilience questionnaire is a 25-item Connor-Davidson (2003) Resilience Scale. Respondents rate items on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (not true at all) to 4 (true nearly all the time). Each item has a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 4. Scores are then totaled with a possible range from 0 to 100.
Higher scores reflect more heightened sense of resilience.

Data Gathering Procedure
The researchers underwent several procedures to acquire the necessary data to complete this study. First, a letter of permission was crafted and submitted to the Office of the Dean of the College of Education of Mindanao State University-General Santos City to conduct the study as well as regarding the involvement of selected Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) students in all year levels as respondents of this study.
Following approval, the Secretary of the Federation of Elementary Educators obtained a master list of the entire population of respondents. This served as a guideline for selecting respondents using the stratified sampling technique. As soon as the sample frame was finalized, the researchers sent the respondents a link 210 Journal of Science and Education (JSE), Vol. 3, No. 3, March 2023, pp. 206-220 that would take them to the online survey questionnaire. Finally, the researchers collected and analyzed the survey questionnaire responses.

Statistical Treatment of the Data
The gathered data for this study were treated using frequency count and weighted mean. To determine the students' perceived level of psychological distress on emergency remote education, frequency count was used (Table 1). A five-point scale was utilized to measure the extent of the experienced learning barriers of BEED students. This is shown Table 2 below.  This is shown Table 4 below.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data show ( Figure 2)   Notwithstanding, the present study reveals alarming levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, implying that students have developed psychological distress in emergency remote education. This corroborates with previous studies, which highlighted that students nowadays are experiencing increased depression, anxiety, and stress (Aslan et al., 2020;Son et al., 2020).
In the Philippine setting, the psychological distress experienced by the students is reflected in many of the context-based psychological measures of disorders experienced by Filipino citizens (Montano & Acebes, 2020;Tee et al., 2020). Studies reported that Filipino students in the new learning platform have severe levels of psychological distress (Rotas & Cahapay, 2020;Pusta et al., 2022). In addition, the study by Tus (2021)  Moreover, according to Shaikh et al. (2021), the Philippines had higher depression, anxiety, and stress levels when compared to Egypt, Pakistan, India, and Ghana. According to Lim et al. (2022), the activities implemented by the different schools on emergency remote education significantly affect students' mental well-being. Thus, the abrupt transition led to depression, anxiety, and stress for several students due to the lack of time to adjust to the remote learning modality. This finding is coherent with a national survey by Baticulon et al. (2021), which revealed that students in the Philippines encountered learning barriers as they adapted to emergency remote education. Moreover, recent studies showed significant challenges experienced by students during emergency remote education.
These are administrative/instructor issues, technical problems, technical skills, time and support for studies, learner motivation, social interactions, cost and access to the internet, and academic skills (Jingco et al., 2021).
Among the eight (8) factors of learning barriers on emergency remote education, cost and access to the internet obtained the highest (χ = 3.49), whereas technical skills had the lowest (χ = 2.37), interpreted as a low extent of barrier, thus, interpreted as a moderate extent of barrier. In coherence with Aung & Khaing's (2015) findings, students nowadays have greater computer and internet experience; thus, they perceive technical skills as an advantage rather than a barrier to learning. However, cost and access to the internet are of major concern for instructors and students in the new learning platform (Mahmud, 2010

Overall Mean 3.35 Uncertain
The data above (Table 5) shows the level of students' motivation for learning during the pandemic. The students agree that they think their online classes are challenging (χ = 4.24) and when taking online exams, they feel their hearts beating fast (χ = 4.21). For the students, the most satisfying thing for them is trying to understand the content thoroughly as possible during online classes (χ = 3.90). If they try hard enough, then they will understand the material presented online (χ = 3.91). And, when they study in appropriate ways online, then they will be able to learn the material. It appears that students show motivation in online classes because they find ways on how to learn the materials presented online. Indeed, the students are expected to do well in online classes (χ = 3.36). They learn the content well in online class (χ = 3.00) and they believe that they will receive excellent grades in online classes. On contrary, the students disagree that their online classes are easy for them (χ = 2.36). They just chose online class because they think that it will fit their schedule (χ = 2.81) or they have no choice at all. The result shows low scores on that they can freely communicate with their instructor (χ = 2.70) why it is done online, and the barriers were set too high. They are not certain that they can understand the most difficult material presented online (χ = 2.74) they also got low scores when asked if they enjoy the class discussions online (χ = 2.82). The overall mean of students' motivation is (χ = 3.35), described as uncertain. The findings show an average level of motivation. This indicates that students are generally motivated to learn during emergency remote education.  Vol. 3, No. 3, March 2023, pp. 206-220 Labrague et al. (2020 pointed out that individuals with high resilience and have more effective coping mechanisms can adapt to life adversities and keep functioning well -physically and psychologically. Despite the Philippines being ranked 66th out of 85 nations in terms of internet connection quality by Surfshark in its 2020 digital quality of life assessment (Tadalan, 2021), students are still willing to join online classes. They find the learning modalities challenging during this remote education, and they have a lot of inhibitions regarding the online evaluation. They should be instructed to become familiar with online modalities to cope with and comprehend the online materials. Students are expected to read, understand, and complete work without the assistance of teachers in the new setting. They are compelled to learn independently and on their own. The requirement obliges them to actively participate in online classes with awareness, learn new things and interact with the teacher and other students (Knowles & Kerkman, 2017). The data above (Table 7) reveal the relationship between the experienced psychological distress and learning barriers in correlation with the motivation and resilience of the students. A Pearson's productmoment correlation (Pearson r) is computed to assess the relationship between the experienced psychological distress and learning barriers correlate with the motivation and resilience of students. There is no significant correlation between psychological distress and motivation of the students, r (238) = -.046, p =.479 > .05, explaining 0.2% of the variations in the motivation of the students. These results imply that the students' psychological distress does not influence their motivation.
On the other hand, there is a significant low negative correlation between psychological distress and resilience of students, r (238) = -.228, p =.000 < .05, explaining 5.1% of the variations in the resilience of the students. These results imply that the psychological distress of the students influences their resilience. The higher the extent of their psychological distress, the lower their resiliency. Also, the lower the extent of their psychological distress, the higher their resiliency.
In addition, there is a significant low negative correlation between learning barriers and motivation of the students, r (238) = -.162, p =.012 < .05, explaining 2.6% of the variations in the motivation of the students. These results indicate that the learning barriers significantly influence the students' motivation. The higher the level of their learning barriers, the lower their motivation. In addition, the lower the level of their learning barriers, the higher their motivation.
Furthermore, there is a significant low negative correlation between learning barriers and resilience of students, r (238) = -.142, p =.018 < .05, explaining 2.0% of the variations in the resilience of the students.
These results suggest that the learning barriers significantly influence the students' resilience. The higher the level of their learning barriers, the lower their resilience. In addition, the lower the level of their learning barriers, the higher their resilience. Generally, since there is a low negative correlation between psychological distress and learning barriers to the motivation and resilience of the students, then it indicates that there are other factors that influence students' motivation and resilience other than psychological distress and learning barriers. In connection to previous studies, the factors influencing the student's motivation and resilience are assessment and school engagement (Simon, 2019;Leenknecht et al., 2020;Cents-Boonstra et al., 2021;Romano et al., 2021).

CONCLUSION
Based on the findings, it was found that the students have extremely severe depression level, extremely severe anxiety level, and moderate stress level which implies that students in emergency remote education have perceived levels of psychological distress from moderate to extremely severe depression, anxiety and stress. In addition, the students have experienced learning barriers during emergency remote education to a moderate extent. The results also revealed that during remote learning, students are generally motivated to learn and are resilient. Furthermore, it was found in this study that psychological distress significantly influences the resilience of students, but it does not influence the motivation of the students, whereas, learning barriers significantly influence both motivation and resilience of the students. Other factors that influence students' motivation and resilience other than psychological distress and learning barriers can be explored further in future studies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to the Mindanao State University-General Santos City -College of Education, Bachelor of Elementary Education Department for the permission to conduct this research. The proponents are equally thankful to the respondents for all their efforts and inputs in support of this undertaking. Also, to their beloved family and friends for their encouragement, trust, and valuable support in terms of financial assistance to make this study possible. Above all, they are thankful to Almighty God, for the guidance, good health, knowledge, and wisdom that made the researchers finish this study.