Stress in the higher education academic community

Association between sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical characteristics

Abstract

The stressful factors of the academic routine affect the quality of life and mental health of teachers and students. This study aimed to verify the association between perceived stress and sociodemographic, behavioral and clinical variables in the academic community of higher education institutions through a quantitative, analytical and cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire. Perceived stress was analyzed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). The sample included 486 participants, 71.1% of whom were students and 28.9% were teachers. Student's t-tests for independent samples or analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for statistical analysis, depending on the number of categories. The results revealed a high perception of stress among the academic community when compared to the general population, with the highest stress levels associated with sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical factors. These included: female gender, age between 17 and 29 years, Black skin color, single marital status, income lower than a minimum wage, being a student, consuming alcohol more than four times a week, sleeping less than five hours a day, being a smoker, being obese, being sedentary or having a diagnosed psychiatric or chronic illness. Therefore, it is expected that this study will provide data for the implementation of health promotion and prevention programs related to reducing the impacts of stress on the mental health of the academic community.