A Comparative Evaluation of Depression and Anxiety Rate Among Native and Non-native Students of Dentistry School at Ahvaz Jundishapour University of Medical Sciences

In addition to stresses relating to educational settings, dentistry students are also exposed to stresses of clinical settings. Anxiety and depression are two very important issues in everyone’s life. This is due undoubtedly to exposure to stress and tensions, and it is the individuals’ variability that determines to what extent they are influenced by environmental conditions. Through this cross-comparative study conducted in May 2014, we tried to determine to what extent the individuals behavior is affected by the environment. The research hypothesis holds that the extent of anxiety and depression among non-native male students of Dentistry School at Ahvaz Jundi Shapour University of Medical Science was much higher than that of their native counterparts. To this end, Beck Depression Inventory and Cattell Anxiety test were used. Then, reliability and validity of the questionnaire were reassessed, and then the population was determined through studying total of 123 male studentsthat 62 (31 non-native and 31 native) students were randomized easily, in addition, they had spent more than 2 years studying dentistry, and their family economic situation was also relatively moderate. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, frequency, mode, mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and independent t-test and Pearson Correlation using statistical software SPSS21. Finally, the results indicated that depression and anxiety among native and non-native students were not significantly different, therefore, the hypothesis was rejected.