Life on a Tightrope: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Narratives of Coping with Academic Stress among Filipino Medical Students

A vast majority of research on academic stress is centered on its contributing factors and how they affect other aspects of students’ lives. Coping mechanisms and effective ways in dealing with stress have also been delved into, but none have dwelt on a study of the medical students' lived experience of academic stress. There was no study found in literature which examined and collectively characterized the different phases that medical students go through in coping with academic stress, hence the impetus to undertake this study. Anchored on the Transactional Model of coping with stress, this study was undertaken to answer the central question: How do Filipino medical students collectively characterize the phases they undergo in coping with the stresses in medical school?