Inventário de Fontes de Estresse Acadêmico no Curso de Medicina (IFSAM)

The Inventory of Academic Sources of Stress in Medical Education (IASSME) was developed to characterize the main sources of academic stress for students at the School of Medicine, University of Porto (FMUP), as well as the intensity with which they experience such stress. The 31-item inventory resulted from semi-structured interviews with students (n = 80) from all six years of medical school. The inventory's psychometric properties were tested on 251 students from the six years (160 females and 91 males). Construct validity was assessed by means of factor analysis, resulting in a five-factor solution ("course demands", "human demands", "lifestyle", "academic competition", and "academic adjustment"), with a total of 54.8% of the total variance explained as well as good representation of the construct. The total inventory showed good reliability and internal consistency of 0.88. Based on the findings, the IASSME displayed good psychometric characteristics in this sample and can be a useful instrument for assessing sources of academic stress and their intensity in other medical schools.