Evaluating student stress in an animal science course with unsupervised livestock experience

In recent years, Animal Science demographics have been shifting from many students having an abundance of animal experience towards a majority of students having little to no prior animal experience. It’s important to note this demographic shift and to consider how this shift could be impacting student mental health. Throughout a semester long parturition management course with unsupervised animal experiences, physiological and psychological stress data were collected along with student demographic data and prior animal experience levels. Caucasian participants were more psychologically stressed than non-Caucasian participants (P = 0.04). Participants with beginner level animal experience tended to have higher stress levels than participants with mid-level animal experience (P = 0.08). However, physiological stress results showed no differences among demographic variables nor prior animal experience. Future studies should investigate student stress in introductory animal courses to better understand their initial stress when working with animals at the collegiate level.