Longitudinal Study of Medical School Students, 1980-1984

This is a longitudinal study of the class of 1984 at Harvard and Tufts medical schools. The purpose of the study was to identify and describe experiences of stress in the lives and training of medical students, to determine the nature of the personal and environmental resources that students used to cope with stress, and to assess the effectiveness of these adaptational responses. All entering students at the two schools were invited to participate in the questionnaire phase of the research during orientation week in September, 1980. Data were collected in this first wave from 265 students, approximately 85% of the two first year classes. In addition to the demographic questions, the package of instruments included a self-esteem scale, a locus of control scale, sex-role and social support measures, TATs, Habits of Nervous Tension, Life Conditions Questionnaire, the Multiple Affect Checklist, and depression and anxiety scales. A subsample of 64 students was interviewed during the first year; this group contained equal numbers of men and women and equal numbers of nonminorities and minorities. Additional waves of interview data were collected in the third and fourth years; questionnaire data were again collected in seven subsequent years. The interviews were both semi-structured and open-ended, and covered contextual information, experiences of stress, feelings about oneself, attitudes about medicine and career, and moral development measures. The Murray Research Archive has original record paper data from the first wave of the study, as well as original record paper data from a pilot study. In addition, the Murray Archive holds interview transcripts from the first and third waves of data collection