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The social experience of stress as premedical students in the United States

  • 0Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts, Temple University, 722 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, United States.
Social Science & Medicine +

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May 30, 2025

|

May 30, 2025

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

First-year premedical students

Area Of Science

  • Medical Education
  • Sociology of Education
  • Psychology

Background

  • Premedical students experience significant stress.
  • Existing research details stress causes and impacts, but not student interpretations.
  • Understanding how students process stress is crucial for medical education.

Purpose Of The Study

  • To explore how first-year premedical students understand, interpret, and manage stress.
  • To differentiate experiences between students with and without parental college education (insiders vs. newcomers).
  • To examine the role of peer socialization in stress management and its link to inequality.

Main Methods

  • In-depth interviews with 27 first-year premedical students at a large US public university.
  • Sample divided into 'insiders' (parents with college degrees) and 'newcomers' (first-generation college students).
  • Qualitative analysis of interview data to identify themes in stress perception and coping.

Main Results

  • Insiders, due to social and cultural capital, are more comfortable with stress than newcomers.
  • Newcomers perceive less formal guidance, leading to greater reliance on peer socialization for stress management.
  • Insiders remain less affected by stress, while newcomers may doubt their physician aspirations.

Conclusions

  • Social understandings of stress among premedical students differ based on socioeconomic background.
  • Peer socialization around stress may contribute to the social reproduction of inequality in medicine.
  • Addressing stress perception disparities is vital for equitable medical education pathways.

Keywords:

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