A comparative study on positive mentalities between the only-child medical interns and the non-only-child medical interns in a Chongqing hospital / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the group characteristics of positive mentalities between the only-child medical interns and the non-only-child medical interns in different birth order.Methods By cluster sampling method,Positive Mentalities Scale for university students was applied to test 194 medical interns who enrolled in a Chongqing hospital in 2015 to obtain the score of positive psychological quality of medical students.Descriptive statistics and variance analysis were conducted using SAS 8.2.Results The total scores of the only-child interns' positive mentalities were significantly higher than those of the firstborn interns[(97.26 ± 11.04) vs.(92.30 ± 12.84),P=0.010].The scores of the study-loving factor from high to low were listed as followsthe only-child interns,interns born in other birth order,interns who were the youngest children in the family,and the firstborn interns.Meanwhile,statistical difference was found in those (P＜0.05).The team-spirit factor scores of the interns who were the youngest children in the family were significandy lower than those of others (P＜0.05).All the scores concerning self-discipline factor were relatively low.All the scores of self-discipline factor,modesty factor and thanks-giving factor had no statistical difference (P＞0.05) between the only-child interns and the non-only-child interns.Conclusion The positive mental development of the only-child interns are superior to that of the firstborn interns.The training of positive mentalities of the firstborns and the youngest children in family should be paid attention to and the training of self-discipline should be strengthened among all medical interns.