THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE MEDICAL STUDENTS IN ALMAAREFA COLLAGES, IN RIYADH 2014-2015.

Introduction: a study had been done in Al-Maarefa colleges for science and technology in a 100 female medical students about stress and its associated factors. Objectives: to find out the proportion of stress among female medical students, mention the different factors that increase it, and compare the effects of stress on student GPA among different levels of same students. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study, in which randomly selected female medical students between level 5 to level 12 completed online questionnaire with close-ended questions. Results: high stress in only among the preclinical students, 82% of preclinical students, and 92% of clinical students are under moderate stress. 25% of students who have partial or total scholarship are under high level of stress, while 84% of them have moderate level of stress. Relationship with the family is an important factor we found that 43% of high stress is among those who have bad & very bad relationship with their families, while only 3% of high stress is among those who have excellent & satisfactory relationship with their families. College environment has great influence on the level of stress; 90% of students who are not feeling comfortable with college are all having moderate to high stress. Conclusion: It was found that the majority of the students were under moderate level of stress despite their level. The most important factors that affected the level of stress among the students from different levels were total or partial scholarship, and bad relationship with families and friends, in which students were under high levels of stress. The college environment was associated with the level of stress of the students; students who were comfortable with their environment had a lower level of stress.