Perceptions of dental stress and social support among Malaysian dental students

Objective: To explore the association between social support and stress levels in preclinical and clinical dental students in Malaysia. Method: A cross sectional survey of dental undergraduate students was conducted at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia. Stress was measured using the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. A DES-32 item was used to measure stress for the clinical students and DES-16 item for the preclinical students. Four questions were used to measure social support. The total stress scores were standardized for comparison purposes. Results: A total of 357 (79.7%) preclinical and 417 (71.8%) clinical undergraduate dental students responded to the questionnaires. The clinical students experienced higher stress [mean standardized DES score = 72.63, SD = 10.64] than preclinical students [mean standardized DES score = 70.19, SD=12.01]. The two most stressful items reported by preclinical students were ?fear of failing? and ?examination and grades?. Among clinical students, the two most stressful items related to academic were ?completing course requirement? and ?fear of failing course? and items related to clinical session were ?fear of being barred due to the clinical schedule? and ?patients late or absent?. Multiple regression analyses revealed that low stress levels among preclinical students were significantly associated to a lot of contact with students of the same course. Conclusion: To some extent, social support does play a role in explaining differences in perceived stress, in particular among preclinical students.