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Associations between demographic factors and the academic trajectories of medical students in Japan.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Group-based trajectory modeling is a useful tool for categorizing students' academic trajectories and their determinants. Using insights gained from the analyses, we can identify students at risk for poor academic performance and monitor them to provide support. To date, studies investigating the associations between demographic factors and academic performance trajectories among medical students are scarce. The study objective was to examine the associations between demographic factors and academic performance trajectories in medical students using group-based trajectory modeling. METHODS:Participants included all medical students admitted to Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan in 2013 and 2014 (n = 202). Academic performance was evaluated by biannual grade point average (GPA) scores in preclinical years. We used group-based trajectory modeling to categorize students into GPA trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the association between the odds of being in a certain GPA trajectory group and demographic factors such as high school type, high school geographical area, admission test type, high school graduation year, whether the student was a biology major, and sex. RESULTS:Students' GPA trajectories were classified into four trajectory groups as well as another group that consisted of students who withdrew or repeated years. We found that students whose high school geographical area was outside the National Capital Region were 7.2 times more likely to withdraw or repeat years in comparison with students whose school was inside the National Capital Region (OR: 7.21, 95% CI: 1.87, 27.76). In addition, admission test type, high school graduation year, and sex were associated with GPA trajectories. CONCLUSIONS:High school geographical area, admission test type, high school graduation year, and sex were associated with GPA trajectories. These findings provide important insights into identifying students at risk for poor academic performance and strategies for monitoring them to provide adequate and timely support.

SUBMITTER: Nawa N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7233530 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Associations between demographic factors and the academic trajectories of medical students in Japan.

Nawa Nobutoshi N Numasawa Mitsuyuki M Nakagawa Mina M Sunaga Masayo M Fujiwara Takeo T Tanaka Yujiro Y Kinoshita Atsuhiro A

PloS one 20200518 5

<h4>Background</h4>Group-based trajectory modeling is a useful tool for categorizing students' academic trajectories and their determinants. Using insights gained from the analyses, we can identify students at risk for poor academic performance and monitor them to provide support. To date, studies investigating the associations between demographic factors and academic performance trajectories among medical students are scarce. The study objective was to examine the associations between demograph ...[more]

PMID: 32421758

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Project description:BackgroundResearch shows that there are connections among academic burnout, resilience, and life satisfaction in medical students. However, no study has yet examined the temporal relationships between academic burnout, resilience, and life satisfaction among medical students. This longitudinal study aimed to examine the temporal associations between academic burnout, resilience, and life satisfaction and to explore the possible mediating role of resilience in the relationship between academic burnout and life satisfaction among medical students.MethodsThis is a three-wave longitudinal study covering the preclinical education period of 20 months. From October 2018 to June 2020, a total of 190 students majoring in clinical medicine filled out the Chinese College Student Academic Burnout Inventory (CCSABI), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) three times. Cross-lagged models were constructed to examine the temporal relationships between academic burnout, resilience, and life satisfaction and longitudinal mediation models were constructed to explore the possible mediating role of resilience in the association of academic burnout with life satisfaction.ResultsAmong medical students, resilience uni-directionally and positively predicted life satisfaction, while academic burnout uni-directionally and negatively predicted life satisfaction. However, the temporal association between resilience and academic burnout was negative and somewhat bidirectional. Resilience had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between academic burnout and life satisfaction in medical students.ConclusionsMedical educators need to identify and take effective measures to combat academic burnout problems which can lead to reduced life satisfaction among medical students. Resilience-based interventions may be promising in buffering the negative impacts of academic burnout and improving life satisfaction. It is recommended that effective resilience-promotion interventions be developed and implemented in medical education to help enhance medical students' psychological well-being.

Project description:BackgroundThe current study aimed to evaluate the previously unexplored correlation between undergraduate medical students' attendance during their surgical clerkship and their academic performance. It also aimed to explore any difference in the attendance rate between male and female students and whether this difference, if present, affects the academic performance.MethodsA retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study has been conducted on 331 undergraduate medical students during their surgical clerkships at the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS) at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), Bahrain from September 2018 to June 2020.ResultsThere was a positive statistically significant correlation between students' attendance during surgical clerkship and academic performance (r = 0.360, P < 0.01). Mean attendance rate was greater in each increasing category of academic performance: 47.95% in the weak category (less than 65%, n = 42), 57.62% in the good performance category (65% to less than 75%, n = 108), 67.82% in the very good performance category (75% to less than 85%, n = 126), 83.16% in the excellent performance category (85% and above, n = 55). The mean attendance rate of male students was 59.76% (SD = 25.73), compared to 66.92% (SD = 24.30) in the female students. T-test indicated that the difference between the mean attendance of the two groups of the students (male, female) was statistically significant (t = 2.483, p < 0.05). On the other hand, the difference between the mean academic performance for the two groups of students, male & female, (t = 0.284, p = 0.777) was not statistically significant.ConclusionsOur study showed a significant relationship between undergraduate medical students' attendance during their surgical clerkship and their academic performance. Further studies are needed to stratify this correlation according to clinical and theoretical teaching activities. No significant difference was observed in academic performance between female and male students.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Empathy promotes positive physician-patient communication and is associated with improved patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and clinical outcomes. It has been suggested that personality traits should be taken into consideration in programs designed to enhance empathy in medical education due to the association found between personality and empathy among medical students. However, the associations between empathy and big five personality traits in medical education are still underrepresented in the existing literature and relevant studies have not been conducted among medical students in China, where tensions in the physician-patient relationship have been reported as outstanding problems in the context of China's current medical reform. Thus, the main objective of this study was to examine the associations between empathy and big five personality traits among Chinese medical students. METHODS:A cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical university in Northeast China in June 2016. Self-reported questionnaires including the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) and demographic characteristics were distributed. A total of 530 clinical medical students became our final subjects. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of big five personality traits on empathy. RESULTS:Results of this study showed that big five personality traits accounted for 19.4%, 18.1%, 30.2% of the variance in three dimensions of empathy, namely, perspective taking, empathic concern and personal distress, respectively. Specifically, agreeableness had a strong positive association with empathic concern (? = 0.477, P<0.01), and a moderate association with perspective taking (? = 0.349, P<0.01). Neuroticism was strongly associated with personal distress (? = 0.526, P<0.01) and modestly associated with perspective taking (? = 0.149, P<0.01). Openness to experience had modest associations with perspective taking (? = 0.150, P<0.01) and personal distress (? = -0.160, P<0.01). Conscientiousness had a modest association with perspective taking (? = 0.173, P<0.01). CONCLUSION:This study revealed that big five personality traits were important predictors of self-reported measures of both cognitive and affective empathy among Chinese medical students. Therefore, individualized intervention strategies based on personality traits could be integrated into programs to enhance empathy in medical education.

Project description:Academic motivation consists of reward-based extrinsic motivation and curiosity-based intrinsic motivation. Students studying at university or college develop several new social connections with friends, classmates, and teachers, in addition to their family and community. Belonging to their networks, students acquire opinions, appreciation, trust, and norms of the society. Whether those social connections enhance the motivation of university students for academic work is a question yet to be answered in the context of health profession education in Japan. Judo-therapist education is a form of health profession education in Japan. This study aimed to measure the academic motivation and social capital (SC) of judo-therapist students in Japan, and to find the relation between social capital and academic motivation. This cross-sectional study recruited a total of 2247 students applying multi-stage sampling across Japan. A Japanese version Academic Motivation Scale (AMS) measured the learning motivation in three constructs: (1) intrinsic motivation (IM); (2) extrinsic motivation (EM); and (3) amotivation (alpha 0.94). A newly-developed 46-itemed, 4-pointed scale measured social capital (SC) in five constructs: (1) family relations, (2) on-campus friends, (3) off-campus friends, (4) classroom social capital; and (5) regional social capital (alpha 0.85). Robust regression analysis treated all constructs of SC as independent variables and IM and EM as dependent variables respectively in the three models. Among the average level of constructs, the family SC average level was the highest. Classroom SC was less than family SC and community SC was the lowest. Intrinsic motivation is positively influenced by classroom SC the most, followed by family SC, on-campus friends' SC, and community SC. Extrinsic motivation is positively influenced by classroom SC the most, followed by family SC, on-campus friends' SC, and community SC. Amotivation is negatively influenced by social capital constructs except external friends' SC. In conclusion, social connections have the power to enhance the motivation of university students' academic work within health profession education. The relations, trust and bonds developed in the classroom may allow an adult learner's motivation to evolve into autonomous intrinsic motivation and prevent amotivation.

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Associations between demographic factors and the academic trajectories of medical students in Japan.

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Associations between demographic factors and the academic trajectories of medical students in Japan.

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