. Ruxandra Sfeatcu; . Beatrice Adriana Balgiu; . Ioanina Parlatescu
Volume 11, Issue 7 , August 2021, , Pages 1-6
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The academic environment is a challenge for dental students due to the multiplesources of stress they face. For this reason, the present study analyzes the psychometric ...
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BACKGROUND: The academic environment is a challenge for dental students due to the multiplesources of stress they face. For this reason, the present study analyzes the psychometric propertiesof the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire. The secondary objective was to identify thespecific sources of stress perceived by dental students related to gender and years of study.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross‑sectional study was conducted among dentalstudents (n = 340; Mage = 22.45) from the Romanian University of Medicine and Pharmacy inOctober– December 2019. The factorial structure of the questionnaire was performed by meansof the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the multi group‑CFA. The convergent and divergentvalidities were measured by associating DES with scales that measure depression, anxiety, andtension/stress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale‑21‑R), perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale‑14),and life satisfaction (Satisfaction with Life Scale).RESULTS: New measure obtained supported a five‑factor and thirty‑item structure, which is genderinvariant. All the factors within DES have a significant positive correlation with depression, anxiety,tension/stress, and perceived stress and a negative correlation with life satisfaction. The Cronbach’sα coefficients are acceptable (range: 0.67–0.89). The female students perceive aspects related toperformance, the relations with the faculty, clinical responsibilities, and personal life to be morestressful than males. Senior students perceive more stressed aspects related to personal life, whilefreshmen have higher scores on stress associated with clinical responsibilities.CONCLUSIONS: The present results show that DES has psychometric properties which are adequatefor the assessment of dental stress in the case of Romanian students; nevertheless, it is necessaryto extend the use of DES to students attending other universities and to dental practitioners.
