A sample of 49 practicing dental hygienists responded to a survey which included Derogatis and Spencer's 1982 Brief Symptom Inventory, a measure of stress-related symptoms, and a list of items considered stressful based on previous research with hygienists, arranged in six content categories. As hypothesized, in comparison with national norms, hygienists displayed significantly more symptoms on the over-all inventory and also on eight of nine subscales. Also as hypothesized, on the list of stressors, items pertaining to time pressure were rated as significantly more stressful than items from other behavioral domains. However, contrary to prediction, the correlation between over-all symptom level on the inventory and self-rated stress did not reach statistical significance. A variety of implications for stress reduction in dental hygiene practice are discussed.
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