The Influence of Gender and Year of Study on Stress Levels and Coping Strategies among Polish Dental

Abstract

Background and objectives: Stress is a common term used to describe various adverse psychological conditions. Students in the dentistry field face many negative psychological outcomes. The core factors for stress among dental students are related to their training course and social contacts with peers. This research aimed to assess the stress of dental students depending on their gender and study year. Materials and methods: We used the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Mini-COPE questionnaire. The surveys were conducted among 446 dental students (320 women and 126 men) at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. Results: For the second-year and fifth-year students, the differences in scores were statistically significant, while in both cases, men had significantly lower values on the analysed scale. The results of the Kruskal-Wallis test indicated significantly lower values on the PSS-10 scale for the third-year and fourth-year students than in first-year students. The performed statistical analysis of the data obtained from the Mini-COPE questionnaire showed significant differences between men and women in individual years of study. In the first year, women chose more often the strategies related to turning to religion (p = 0.007), seeking emotional support (p = 0.046), seeking instrumental support (p = 0.045) and dealing with something else (p = 0.029) in coping with stress than men. Conclusions: The highest level of stress was found among first-year dental students. Moreover, women were characterised with higher stress levels than men. Men more often use psychoactive substances and resort to a sense of humour to cope with stress. On the other hand, women turn to religion, seek instrumental and emotional support.