Volume 27, Issue 132, February 2023

The perception of stress and coping styles toward stress among medical students

Mohamed Abd Elwahab Eltanahy¹, Matthew Ooi Shu Syuen², Syafiqah Nadirah Haimey², Tay Seng Key², Tong Wai Chin², Muhammad Hairi Padzil², Sherreen Elhariri^3♦

¹Department of Paediatrics, School of Medicine, International Medical University (IMU) Clinical Campus, Batu Pahat, Malaysia
²Medical students of IMU, Malaysia
³Department of Surgery, School of Medicine IMU, Clinical Campus, Seremban, Malaysia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Surgery, School of Medicine IMU, Clinical Campus, Seremban, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Mental health problems are considered one of the common causes of disability in young people between the ages of 15 to 44 years. Studying medicine is well established to be not easy, as medical students are subjected to greater academic and professional stress for a longer duration compared to the general population. Objective: Our study aims to assess the primary coping styles and their association with the levels of perceived stress among medical students. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study, conducted via a self-administered online questionnaire on 341 medical students at the International Medical University in Malaysia. Perceived stress levels were assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire while the primary coping styles were determined by the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory. Results: The emotion-focused coping style exhibited 17.99% increased utilization from low to high perceived stress levels. The avoidant focused coping style exhibited 38.80% increased utilization from low to high perceived stress levels. Conclusion: Emotion and avoidant focused coping styles are associated with higher perceived stress levels.

Keywords: Stress, Perception, Coping, Medical Students

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e98ms2628

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i132/e98ms2628

Published: 18 February 2023