Stress and associated factors in undergraduate students of Faculty of Law of a university in Bangkok

Abstract

Background: Law students tend to have the high stress due to study contents of law, theories, and court precedents. In Thailand, there were limited studies about the stress of undergraduate law students.

Objectives: To study stress and associated factors in undergraduate students of a faculty of law of a university in Bangkok.

Methods: Four hundred and twenty-two participants were recruited from undergraduate students from a first year to a fourth year of Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University, academic year 2016, from October to November 2016. They completed 6 questionnaires :

1) Sociodemographic Questionnaire;

2) Relationship Problems Questionnaire;

3) Suanprung Stress Test 20, SPST – 20;)

4) Social Support Questionnaire;

5) Stress Management Questionnaire; and

6) Social Support Questionnaire. The students’ stress were presented by mean with standard deviation, proportion, and percentage. The associated factors of stress were analyzed by chi-square test. Logistic
regression was used to identify the predictors of the high-to-severe level of stress in students.

Results: The mean score of students’ stress was 49.8 (SD = 15.6). Most (48.3%) had high level of stress. The associated factors of stress level included college years, having physical disorders and/or mental disorders, relationship and family function, classmate relationship problem, negative attitude on learning contents, teaching, learning readiness, evaluation and/or overall, physical stress - reducing behaviors (P < 0.01), income adequacy, smoking, lovers relationship problems, overall stress – reducing behaviors and emotional social support (P < 0.05). By logistic regression, the predictors of high-to-severe level of stress were negative attitude on legal study, relationship and family functioning problem and classmate relationship problem (P < 0.01), physical disorders and negative physical stress – reducing behaviors (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Most students (48.3 %) had high level of stress. The results of the study will be used to improve the quality of students’ mental health pronition by monitoning students who are at high stress level and initiation of students’ mental health promotion programs.