Coping and Social Support as Predictors of Stress Among University of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Science Undergraduate Medicine Students

Abstract

This study was conducted to predict stress among undergraduate medicine students and an examination of coping and social support. Across-sectional design using a quantitative research approach was employed. Stratified random sampling was used to select 270(171 male and 99 female) participants from the target population after stratifying by gender and year of study. Data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Regression) and inferential statistics (One -way ANOVA, post hoc test and Independent Samples t-test). Results of this study shows, prevalence rate of stress were 30.2%. While the current prevalence rate of second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth-year students were 13.7%, 17%, 16.3.%, 20.4% and 32.6 % respectively. The results of multiple regression analysis were found coping as the strongest predictor (β= 0.109, p< .05) and social support (β=.002, p<0.05) significantly predicts stress. The results of Independent samples t-test have shown that significant mean difference in stress (t (268) = 2.92, p<0.05) among male and female participants. Therefore, there is a need to increase students’ awareness on the potential impacts of stress, especially final year students, and also promoting social support, effective and healthy coping strategies to manage their stress. Future studies better to focus on the ways of preventing stress, promoting social support and healthy coping styles among undergraduate medicine students.