A Longitudinal Study of Stress in Dental Students: Year 2

Overview

Objectives/Goals Life changes and daily hassles lead to stress. This longitudinal study tests the hypotheses that stress in first year dental students will negatively affect performance and health, and that the amount and sources of stress will change over time. Methods/Materials 12 US dental schools were contacted; 4 participated. Students completed the Dental Environment Stress (DES) scale, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Stress Rating and demographic questions at the start of school (Time 1), 11.7 weeks later (Time 2), and 1 year later (Time 3) when first year GPA, illnesses, health ratings, and frequency of symptoms were also assessed. Results Of 407 first year students, 296 (186 men, 110 women) responded at Times 1 and 3; 205 responded at all three times. Stress scores were negatively correlated with GPA (p=.006 for DES; p=.042 for PSS; p=.002 for stress rating) and with physical and emotional health ratings (ps#T.002), but positively associated with numbers illnesses (ps<.05), symptoms (p<.0001) and frequency of most symptoms (ps<.05). Stress scores were higher at Time3 than Time 1 (p<.0001 for DES; p=.0004 for PSS), and varied between schools (ps<.0001). Women (p<.01), younger (p<.003) and single students (p<.03) had higher stress scores at Time 1, but not at Time 3. Ratings for DES items related to school work were high at Time 1 and increased at Time 3 (ps<.0001). DES items related to school atmosphere had low ratings at Time 1 but had large increases over time (ps<.0001). Personal factors had low stress ratings both times. Conclusions/Discussion My hypotheses were supported. Stress had detrimental effects on performance and health. Stress increased over time; variation between schools may reflect different teaching methods. Sources of stress changed with the school atmosphere increasing in importance over time, possibly reflecting the different contributions of anticipatory and situational stress. First year dental students may benefit from stress reduction programs.

Awards (1)

• Category Award

Competition history

• CSEF 2006 Behavioral Sciences · Entry S0315

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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