Effect of a Stress Reduction Programme on Academic Stress and Coping Skills of First Year Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Medical students, especially in the first year of their college life, are under stress. Materials and Methods: Study was conducted on 100 first year medical students. The students were given a semi-structured questionnaire to collect sociodemographic data; they were subsequently administered the Academic Stress Scale and the Adjustment Style Inventory. Then a Structured Stress management session was conducted for them, and they were made to practice many stress coping skills for three weeks, following which the questionnaires were re-administered and data collected. The data were analysed with the chi-square test, independent-sample t-test, paired t-test and Pearson’s correlation. Results: The academic stress and coping scores showed no difference among both sexes. The academic stress score showed a negative correlation with coping scale (p= 0.019). There was a significant reduction in the academic stress score post-intervention (p<0.001). The scores of adjustment styles also showed a significant improvement, and there was a significant improvement in the total adjustment style score and negative coping score post-intervention (p<0.001). The positive coping score, however, did not show a significant change. Conclusion: Stress management programmes are effective in reducing academic stress and adjustment styles. The students tend to reduce negative coping skills and better manage stress, post-intervention.