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Currently submitted to: JMIR Formative Research

Date Submitted: Mar 19, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Mar 20, 2025 - May 15, 2025
(currently open for review and needs more reviewers - can you help?)

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

How Medical Student Manage Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study

  • Jonathan Shaw; 
  • Ashley Lai; 
  • Sasha Singh; 
  • Seung Rim Yoo; 
  • Maha Fathali; 
  • Laura Stuck; 
  • James Hagerty; 
  • Van Le; 
  • Jisu Shin; 
  • Charles Lai; 
  • Peter Bota; 
  • Aaron Jacobs

ABSTRACT

This study examines the stress management behaviors of first-year (M1) and second-year (M2) students at an allopathic medical school in California and investigates which activities they employ to manage the feelings associated with this stressful period in their academic careers. A total of 120 M1 and 126 M2 students were contacted via email for this study, and 27 responses were collected. Results indicate that M2 students experience higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, potentially due to isolation and USMLE Step 1 preparation. Female participants were more likely to read to relax (H(1) = 4.994, p = .025), while M1s preferred socializing (H(1) = 5.081, p = .024) and M2s engaged in painting (H(1) = 4.000, p = .046). This study can thus better inform medical schools about creating multifaceted support systems for their students, which may improve their well-being and better prepare them for the demanding field of medicine.​


 Citation

Please cite as:

Shaw J, Lai A, Singh S, Yoo SR, Fathali M, Stuck L, Hagerty J, Le V, Shin J, Lai C, Bota P, Jacobs A

How Medical Student Manage Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study

JMIR Preprints. 19/03/2025:74218

DOI: 10.2196/preprints.74218

URL: https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/74218

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