A cross-sectional survey of stressors and coping strategies among the first-year medical students in Kerala

Abstract

Introduction: Compared to the general population medical students have to face more stress, which, if not handled properly, may negatively affect the career of future doctors and community health drastically. To counter this stress, they need appropriate coping strategies. Studies on stress and coping strategies among medical students in India are very few to date and show wide demographic variations in their results. Materials and Methods:We carried out a cross-sectional survey to find out stressors using a validated Medical Students' Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) and we used Brief COPE scale to assess the coping strategies adopted by the first-year medical students in Kerala. Descriptive statistics was used to compile and summarize data. Result: Most common stress inducer was found to be 'academic related stressor' domain, in which we observed that 88% students had moderate to high level of stress. In this domain, more common stressors were 'examinations' and 'large amount of content to be learnt'. 'Planning' was ranked first with mean score (SD) of 5.72 (1.42), while 'substance use', 2.07 (0.45) was least adopted coping method by them. Conclusion: Academic stressors were found to be the most common stressor domain in first-year medical students. Timely reduction of such stress using various measures is expected from the educators. Maximum students employed constructive coping strategy i.e. 'planning' but maladaptive 'self-distraction' coping was also seen in substantial number of students who can be helped by guiding them for proper coping methods.

How medical students cope with stress: a cross-sectional look at strategies and their sociodemographic antecedents

“…As mentioned, coping with these strategies tends to predict distress in the long-term [14]. These patterns, which align with other studies in the medical education literature [49,70], may reflect the fact that third year represents a very challenging stage for medical students-when they face many more imminent stressors (e.g., more patient care, stressful board examinations, competitive electives, long work hours, sleep deprivation, and higher worry about the future) [48,51,71,72]. Our and others' findings further suggest that fourth year likely relieves medical students of many of these uncertainties, thereby removing their need to use passive and avoidant coping strategies, such as denial [47].…”

“…Put together, the patterns of the above findings align with others in the literature, highlighting specific coping strategies and their frequency of use among medical students [69,70]. They also suggest that medical students may use more active or problem-focused types of coping (e.g., planning) to deal with stressors that they view as solvable (e.g., studying hard to pass a tough exam) and potentially more passive and/or avoidant methods of coping (e.g., venting, denial, self-distraction, behavioural disengagement) to deal with challenges they feel are uncertain and more daunting (e.g., matching to their residency program of choice).…”