Stressor Domains and It’s Correlation with Stress among Medical Students during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students are a vulnerable population to develop mental health problems particularly during Covid-19 pandemic. During the learning process, a lot of stressors may cause stress.

Method: A cross-sectional study was done on 796 medical students. Measuring instruments used were respondent characteristic questionnaire, MSSQ to measure stressor domains, and DASS-21 to measure stress. All clinical and preclinical students of School of Medicine and Health Sciences Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia were included and those who refused to participate were excluded. Data analysis was done univariate, then bivariate with Spearman’s Rank correlation test.

Result: Among respondents, 48.7% were stressed. Stressor domains reported to caused high stress were academic, teaching and learning, and group activities. Stressor domains reported to caused moderate stress were interpersonal and intrapersonal, social, and drive and desire. Overall, academic stressor was the most common finding. Stress was reported on 52.8% female and 40.2% male respondents. Stress was reported on 53.0% preclinical and 37.0% clinical students. There were positive and significant correlation between all stressor domains and stress (p less than 0.01, rs = 0.387 – 0.481).

Conclusion: All stressor domains were significantly correlated to stress in medical students.