Introduction

Dental profession is one of the most stressful health care occupations. Pediatric dental postgraduates face multifaceted challenges in their everyday practice. This study aimed to determine the sources of stress amongst pediatric dental postgraduate students in India using a mixed-method approach.

Methods

A sequential mixed-methods approach was employed. In the quantitative phase, a cross-sectional web-based questionnaire survey was conducted among pediatric dental postgraduates in India using the ‘Google Forms application’ link. Based on the Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire, the stress PACT questionnaire which includes 35 items were framed and validated. This validated questionnaire was used in the survey. In the qualitative phase one-on-one, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted among 12 postgraduates.

Result

A total of 422 participants took part in the quantitative survey. Academic and specialty-related domains were found to be the significant causes of stress among the five domains (p<0.001). The top three stressful factors were as follows: getting an ideal case for clinical exams (68.2%), financial resources for conferences, dissertation, short studies, publications (53.2%), and fear of unemployment after graduation (52.3%). Based on qualitative interviews four themes were derived namely choice of pediatric dentistry, postgraduate life experience, stress management, and expected changes in postgraduate life.

Conclusion

Psychological well-being of the student is an important factor that influences the overall performance of students. Identifying the stress factors and using appropriate coping strategies can help postgraduates achieve personal, academic, and professional success.