Marital Status as a Stress Indicator in Postgraduate Dental Students

The objective of this study was to explore perceived causes of stress and to analyse the influence of marital status and gender as indicators of these causes. Modified Graduate Dental Stress Environment Questionnaire was used on postgraduate students of basic dental sciences at a public sector university in Pakistan. Mean±SD was calculated for all stress-related items and statistical analysis was done through Mann Whitney-U test and multiple linear regression analysis. Out of 53 stress-related items, 15 (28.3%) factors were perceived as mildly stressful, 33 (62.26%) as moderately stressful and 9.4% as highly stressful. A significant relationship was found between 6 stress-related items and marital status. In the questionnaire majority of these items came under the domain of selfefficacy. Single students were more stressed in four areas relating to future career, academic responsibilities and confidence in their decision-making ability, while married students experienced higher stress when competing for research experience in their learning programmes.