title: Personal, health, academic, and environmental predictors of stress for residence hall students.
abstract: The authors studied contributors to stress among undergraduate residence hall students at a midwestern, land grant university using a 76-item survey consisting of personal, health, academic, and environmental questions and 1 qualitative question asking what thing stressed them the most. Of 964 students selected at random, 462 (48%) responded to the survey. The authors weighted data to reflect the overall university-wide undergraduate population (55% men, 12% minority or international, and 25% freshmen). Women and US citizens experienced greater stress than did men and non-US citizens, respectively. Frequency of experiencing chronic illness, depression, anxiety disorder, seasonal affective disorder, mononucleosis, and sleep difficulties were significant stress predictors. Although alcohol use was a positive predictor, drug use was a negative predictor of stress. Both a conflict and a satisfactory relationship with a roommate, as well as a conflict with a faculty or staff member, were also significant predictors of stress.
authors.affiliation: Thielen Student Health Service, Iowa State University, Ames 50012, USA.
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dusselier
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Yongyi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Mack C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Shelley
authors.forename: Donald F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Whalen
mesh_terms: D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012307:Risk Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities