ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses findings from a national wellness study of US medical students that investigated whether stress, self-care, and quality of life differed by generation status. For the purpose of this study, FG medical students were defined as those who self-reported that their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) had not earned a 4-year college degree or higher. Study participants were also recruited via professional listservs, student organizations, and institutional administrations. The authors also obtained a certificate of confidentiality from the US National Institutes of Health. The perceived stress scale, a 14-item instrument, was used to measure how often participants experienced feelings associated with stress in the past month. In addition, participants were asked to record their age, gender, sexual orientation, racial background, FG student status, marital status, and year in medical school. The bivariate analysis showed that FG students had lower levels of wellness than CG students.
