Perceived stress in medical school: resistors, persistors, adaptors and maladaptors.

A longitudinal study of perceived medical student stress (PMSS) was conducted on 305 first year medical students. Data were collected at orientation in September and again in May, 2 weeks before exams. Four types of students were identified using a standardized and reliable measure of PMSS. These included students whose PMSS scores began and ended low (resistors), whose PMSS scores began and remained high (persistors), whose PMSS scores decreased from high to low (adaptors) and whose PMSS scores increased from low to high (maladaptors). The four groups differed predictably on indices of distress and were also distinguishable by a variety of psychosocial variables including type A personality, anger expression and coping. In contrast, life events played a minor role in distinguishing the groups. The results are discussed in relation to previous research on medical student stress.