A longitudinal study of psychological stress among undergraduate dental students at the University of Jordan

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Lamis D. Rajab¹  Hawazen N. Sonbol¹  Suha B. Abu-Ghazaleh¹ 

[1] Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan;

关键词: Academic environment;    Undergraduate dental;    Stress;    Dental environment stress questionnaire;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12909-016-0612-6

 received in 2015-09-11, accepted in 2016-03-09,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to identify whether psychological stress increased as undergraduate dental students progressed through their studies from first to fifth year. Another objective was to determine if the perceived sources of stress have changed along the years.MethodsTo achieve these aims, a cohort of students at the University of Jordan were followed from first to fifth year of dental school. Fifth year students completed both the General Health Questionnaire ‘GHQ-12’ which was used to assess psychological stress and the Dental Environment Stress questionnaire ‘DES’ which was used to examine the perceived sources of stress. The same cohort of students had completed similar questionnaires during their first year of study. Chi-square analysis and independent t-test analysis were performed to compare GHQ-12 and DES scores between first and fifth year.ResultsResults showed that psychological stress increased from first to fifth year of study. Eighty- nine percent of fifth year students scored over the cut-off point of three in the GHQ-12 compared to 58 % in the first year. The difference between the years was statistically significant at p = 0.05. Mean score for DES also increased between first and fifth year of study and the difference was statistically significant at p = 0.05.ConclusionsResults of this study demonstrated that stress in dental students at the University of Jordan increased along the years. Fifth year students showed a high level of psychological stress and methods to reduce that stress should be further investigated and utilized.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Abu-Ghazaleh et al. 2016