Stress and occupational performance in occupational therapy students

Abstract

This in an investigation in which was studied the Academic Stress and the Occupational Performance in students of the career Occupational Therapy, Central University of Venezuela. The Objective was to determine the existing relation between Academic Stress and the Occupational Performance in the students of Occupational Therapy. Techniques of the quantitative and qualitative methodology were combined; in order to evaluate academic stress it was used   the “scale of Situations of Stress Academic” (Of Pablo, 2002 and adapted by Feldman and col. 2008) and an interview to depth based on the Canadian Measurement of Occupational Yield was designed”. 101 students participated (73 women and 28 men). The students reported moderate levels of academic stress (X= 77.63) being the dimension with greater report Stress in the Examinations (X= 30.91), followed by General Stress (X= 20.97). Those students who reflected high levels of stress, in the interview reported that their execution in some areas of the Occupational Performance like the selfcare, accessibility, schooling and socialization, turned out to be unsatisfactory; due to the inadequate feeding, personal adjustment, restricted recreational activities, all it by lack of time, difficult access to the university location and poor transportation. These results allow to indicate that a relation between Academic Stress could exist and the Occupational Performance of the student, since they affect of nonsatisfactory way the execution of the performance areas, rolls and their active participation in the different contexts, breaking therefore the vital balance.