Stressors, Coursework Stress and Coping Strategies among medical students in a private medical school of Karachi, Pakistan.

Objective: To evaluate stressors, coursework stress and coping strategies such as wishful thinking and problem solving coping among medical students. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a private medical school of Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 240 students were selected through technique random sampling technique from first year to fourth year medical students. Validated questionnaires were used for data collection. Data was entered on SPSS version 20. Descriptive analysis was performed to report the frequency of stressors. Pearson correlation test was performed to test correlation between coursework stress and coping, independent t test was performed to test the mean difference of academic stressors on the basis of gender and ANOVA was performed to test the mean difference of stress and coping strategies scores between years of study, p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant different. Results: The mean (SD) age of the students was 20.98 (1.46) years. Majority of the students were females. It showed there a positive correlation (r = 0.257, p 0.05) between coursework stress and coping. In general, medical students frequently used wishful thinking and problem solving as coping strategies. Academic related stressors (mean=2.48, SD =0.82) were found to be predominant in all the years of study followed by social related stressor. Conclusion: Student who were frequently using the coping techniques seem to experience high level of coursework stress. Third year medical students were seen to be more stressed out, followed by fourth year students. Least amount of stress was seen in the first year. Academic requirements were found to be the most prevalent stressor