Source of stress in Chulalongkorn University dental students

Abstract

Objective: To identify the source of stress in students in the faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University of the academic year 2003. Research Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study Objective: To identify the source of stress in students in the faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University of the academic year 2003. Subjects: all 604 dental students in 2003 academics year who voluntary to enroll the study. Methods: A newly constructed questionnaire was developed for identifying the potential stressor in students in the faculty of Dentistry. The questionnaire consisted of 7 dimensions and 34 potential stressors. For each item, a response was requested on a Likert-like 4 pointed scale. Three experts in Dental education reviewed the validity of the scale. The reliability of the scale was evaluated using its internal consistency as an indicator. The Cronbach’s Coefficient alpha of each dimension is 0.8379, 0.9063, 0.8190, 0.7915, 0.8609, 0.8991 and 0.9109 respectively. The measurement was performed once. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Result: The response rate was 75%. The dimension that obtained the highest score from the whole student is Workload. Classified by class year, workload obtained the highest score for every class year students. From the recoding data for identifying the source of stress, the extensive workload is the potential stressor for the whole student. Classified by class year, the difficulty of work is the potential stressor for the 1st year students. The frequent examination is the potential stressor for the 2nd and 3rd year students. The extensive workload is the potential stressor for the 4th and 6th year students and the working with the time constraint is the potential stressor for the 5th year students.