Gender Differences in Perceived Stress and Mental Health

Abstract Objective: To investigate the gender differences in perceived stress and mental health in medical students of Lahore, Pakistan. Methodology: The current study was cross-sectional in nature conducted at two private medical colleges in Lahore. Data was collected using stratified random sampling. Sample size was 300 (150 males & 150 females) students selected from all five years of two medical colleges. For assessment purpose Demographic form, Perceived Stress Scale for Medical Students (PSSMS) for stress assessment and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) for mental health evaluation were used. Results: For statistical analysis descriptive statistics was used for demographics details and from inferential statistics t-test was used for a clear picture of gender differences in perceived stress and mental health issues. Results revealed that in PSSMS scale only one subscale of burnout showed significant differences (p=.001) which revealed that males were more burnout than females. Significant gender differences were found for DASS Total (p=.007), and its subscale of Stress (p=.000), and Depression (p=.004). Conclusion: Our findings revealed that females demonstrate high level of stress, depression and on the whole more mental health issues than their male counterparts. On the other hand in Perceived Stress Scale for Medical Students (PSSMS) there were no significant differences in dimensions of social stressors, academic stressors and mistrust. Burnout was only one dimension in which male showed high burnout than female students. Gender appeared to influence the mental health of students