Abstract
BackgroundMedical students face significant stressors related to the intense rigors of their training and education. Accurate measurement of their stress is important to quickly identify, characterize and ameliorate these challenges. Existing measures have limitations that modern measurement approaches, such as item response theory (IRT), are able to address. This study presents the calibration and validation of a new IRT-based measure called the Medical Student Stress Scale (MSSS).MethodsFollowing rigorous measurement development procedures described elsewhere, the authors created and tested a pool of 35 items with 348 1st – 4th year medical students along with demographic and external validity measures. Psychometric analysis included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, IRT modeling, and correlations with legacy measures.ResultsOf the original 35 items, 22 were retained based on their ability to discriminate, provide meaningful information, and perform well against legacy measures. The MSSS differentiated stress scores between male and female students, as well as between year in school.ConclusionDeveloped with input from medical students, the MSSS represents a student-centered measurement tool that provides precise, relevant information about stress and holds potential for screening and outcomes-related applications.
Highlights
Medical students face significantstressors related to the intense rigors of their training and education
It is widely understood that medical school can be a very stressful experience that is different from other forms of life stress
While global measurement tools exist to assess stress or burnout, such as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), they are designed for use across broad populations and do not capture the specific experience of medical students
Summary
Medical students face significantstressors related to the intense rigors of their training and education Accurate measurement of their stress is important to quickly identify, characterize and ameliorate these challenges. It is widely understood that medical school can be a very stressful experience that is different from other forms of life stress. While global measurement tools exist to assess stress or burnout, such as the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), they are designed for use across broad populations and do not capture the specific experience of medical students. For medical student stress three different measures exist, each with its own limitations; Perceived Medical Student Stress (PMSS) Instrument [10], Medical Student Stress Profile (MSSP) [11], and Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) [12]. A list of issues is not necessarily a limitation in and of itself, given the nature of medical student stress, a respondent may more and quickly identify with an item’s content and meaning when it is written in a more personal way
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