Perceived Sources of Stress and Coping Strategies in Dental Students and Interns

Dental students are exposed to different stress factors in different stages of dental education which, apart from affecting their physical and mental health also has an impact on academic performance. The present research attempts to identify the perceived sources of stress and coping strategies amongst dental students and interns. Questionnaire consisting demographic data, Modified Dental Environmental Stress Questionnaire and Tactics for Coping with Stress Inventory were administered to undergraduate dental students and interns (N= 320). Stress showed an upward trend from first to final year. Stress due to emotional factors was significantly higher than academic, social and physical factors. Females were more stressful than males. Students staying at home were more stressful than those staying in hostel. There is a need for intervention programs at the level of students, parents, teachers and administration to develop an overall positive institutional atmosphere for dental education and student welfare. Address for correspondence: Dr. Anjali Deshpande Dept. of Paediatrics and Preventive Dentistry VSPM Dental College and Research Centre Digdoh Hills, Hingna Road Nagpur, Maharashtra, 440019, India Telephone: 91 8805452364 Fax: 07104 232904 E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION Stress is defined as an organism’s total response to environmental demands or pressures. It is described in Stedman’s Medical Dictionary as, “physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological reactions that may lead to illness.” The stress phenomenon amongst dental students has been reported since 1970s (Alzahem et al. 2011). Although most of these studies were cross-sectional in design, they have shown significant increase of stress amongst dental students in relation to different variables. Many studies have been conducted in different dental and medical schools across the world and in India (Sanders and Lushington 1999; Acharya 2003; Shaikh et al. 2004; Sofola and Jeboda 2006; Alzahem et al. 2011; Al-Samadani 2013; Al-Sowygh 2013; Alzahem et al. 2013; Paudel et al. 2013; Marin et al. 2014). Students are exposed to different stress factors in different stages of dental education which may have negative impact not only on their physical and mental health (Al Omari 2005) but also on their academic performance (Westerman et al. 1993). A study carried out in Chennai, India, concluded that there was a corresponding increase in cases of depression with every increase in cases of stress among the students (Reddy et al. 2013). Most of the previous studies about stress amongst dental students focused mainly on sources of stress and factors influencing the level of stress, such as gender and other demographic variables and have been conducted through surveys using the Dental Environment Stress (DES) Questionnaire (Alzahem et al. 2011; Al-Sowygh 2013; Alzahem et al. 2013; Paudel et al. 2013). Few studies on coping strategies adopted by students have been carried out to investigate different aspects of coping with stress by medical and dental students (Supe 1998; Shaikh 2004; Al-Sowygh 2013; Paudel et al. 2013; Saxena et al. 2013; Marin et al. 2014). Apart from identifying the sources of stress, the present research includes identifying the coping strategies adopted by students. This study also addressed the response to stress and coping strategies for interns since researchers’ review of literature showed scarcity of information in this direction. 134 ANJALI DESHPANDE AND SURESH CHARI