Predictors of Medical Students' Beliefs about Intelligence: Affective and Cognitive Factors, Parental Interest, and Home Economic Status / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: To identify predictors of medical students' beliefs about intelligence among affective and cognitive factors, parental interest in children's education, and home economic status (HES). Of the 408 medical students who participated in this study, 398 completed and returned the questionnaires, yielding a total response rate of 97.5%. METHODS: Measures of students' beliefs about intelligence, intrinsic value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, cognitive strategies, self-regulation, parental interest in children's education, and HES were obtained. RESULTS: Spearman's correlations indicated that an entity theory of intelligence was negatively related to intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategies, self-regulation, parental interest in children's education, and HES, and positively related to test anxiety. An incremental theory of intelligence was positively related to intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategies, self-regulation, parental interest in children's education, and HES, and negatively related to test anxiety. Findings of independent t-tests showed that incremental theorists showed higher intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategies, self-regulation, parental interest in children's education, and lower test anxiety than entity theorists. A binary logistic regression analysis showed that 72.9% of the medical students in the study were accurately classified as either incremental theorists or entity theorists with respect to intrinsic value, self-efficacy, test anxiety, and cognitive strategies. CONCLUSION: Medical educators need to be aware that medical students who have incremental beliefs about intelligence have higher intrinsic value, self-efficacy, cognitive strategies, and lower test anxiety than those who have fixed beliefs about intelligence. Perhaps a training program needs to be developed to enhance medical students' conceptions of intelligence based on the findings.

Academic Motivation, Academic Stress, and Perceptions of Academic Performance in Medical Students / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: This study was to examine whether medical students' academic motivation, general academic stress influence their perceived academic performance. METHODS: Of the 606 medical students surveyed from two universities in Seoul and Incheon, 308 completed and returned the questionnaires yielding a total response rate of 50.8%. The final sample consisted of 129 premedical students (41.9%) and 179 medical students (58.1%). Of these, 189 were male (61.4%), 94 were female (30.5%), and 25 did not identify their gender (8.1%). Their average age was 22.43 years. Measures of students' academic motivation, general academic stress, medical stress, and their perceptions of academic performance were obtained. RESULTS: Pearson's correlations indicated that students' perceptions of academic performance were associated with academic motivation, general academic stress, and medical stress. It was observed that there were gender differences in 'perceptions of academic performance,' 'intrinsic academic motivation,' and 'extrinsic academic motivation.' Females scored themselves higher in 'perceptions of academic performance,'and 'ntrinsic academic motivation,'but lower in 'xtrinsic academic motivation'than did the males. Moreover, premedical students had higher 'perceptions of academic performance' and 'extrinsic academic motivation' scores, but lower 'eneral academic stress'and 'edical stress'scores than medical students. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the 'motivation'subscale from the academic motivation measure and 'social-psychological' subscale from the general academic stress measure predicted the perceptions of academic performances of the medical students after controlling for gender and education level. CONCLUSION: Medical educators need to be aware that medical students' perceived stress and their academic motivation affects their academic performance which can have a tremendous impact on their quality of life and psychological well-being. Perhaps an academic adjustment program needs to be developed to reduce students' perceived stress in medical training.

Perfectionism, Achievement Goals, and Academic Efficacy in Medical Students / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: This study explored the interrelationships between perfectionism, achievement goals, and academic efficacy, hypothesizing that perfectionism and achievement goals affected academic efficacy in medical students. Of the 400 medical students surveyed from three universities in Seoul, 228 completed and returned the questionnaires yielding a total response rate of 57%. Their average age was 23.28 years. METHODS: Measures of students' perfectionism, achievement goals, and academic efficacy were obtained. Exploratory factor analyses were used to measure dimensions of perfectionism (adaptive and maladaptive) and achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performanceavoidance). Both scales confirmed the three subscales of achievement goals and two subscales of perfectionism through Principal Component Analyses and internal consistency testing. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test the relationships among the variables. RESULTS: It was found that adaptive perfectionism positively influenced students' academic efficacy directly and indirectly via their mastery and performance-approach goals. Moreover, maladaptive perfectionism influenced their academic efficacy indirectly via their performanceapproach goals. However, maladaptive perfectionism did not influence their academic efficacy directly or indirectly via performance-avoidance goal. CONCLUSION: Medical educators need to be aware that encouraging students toward adaptive perfectionism, which is psychologically less stressful, is valuable given these findings. Perhaps learning environments could be developed to enhance students' adaptive perfectionism, mastery and performance-approach goals, and subsequently academic efficacy.