A Systematic Review on Validity Evidence of Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire

Abstract

Introduction: Detecting sources of stress of medical students is important for planning wellnessprogram to improve their psychological wellbeing. One of instruments to detect the sources of stressis the Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ). A systematic review was performed to findout evidence to support its validity in term of content, response process, internal structure, relationto other variables, and consequences. Method: The author planned, conducted and reported thisstudy according to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses)standard of quality for reporting meta-analyses. Systematic search was performed on EBSCOhost,Scopus, Proquest, PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases. Result: The authoryielded 613 relevant articles based on search terms, 44 articles had used MSSQ, and after criticalappraisal, only 18 articles provided evidence to support validity MSSQ and thus were included inthe systematic review. Conclusion: This systematic review supports the validity of MSSQ in relationto content, response process, internal structure, relations to other variables, and consequences ofits scores. MSSQ is a valid tool to detect sources of stress in medical students and its results can beutilised as a guide to plan wellness program or intervention to improve medical students’ wellbeing.