RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Motivation is an internal mood that moves individuals to act, points them in certain directions, and maintains them in activities, playing a very important role in self-regulated learning and academic performance. Our objective was to evaluate motivation and self-regulation of knowledge in pediatric residents in a third-level hospital, and to determine if there are differences according to the type of specialty and sociodemographic variables. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All residents who agreed to participate responded to the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Cronbach alpha was performed to determine reliability. The mean value of each subscale was compared with Student's t test or ANOVA, correlation of subscales with Pearson test. A value of p≤0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: We included 118 residents. The questionnaire was highly reliable (α=0.939). There were no significant differences in motivation or learning strategies according to sex, marital status, or age. Those residents studying a second or third specialization had significantly higher scores in elaboration, critical thinking, and peer learning. There were significant correlations between intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy with the development of knowledge strategies such as elaboration, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation. CONCLUSIONS: Our students present average-to-high scores of motivation and knowledge strategies, with a significant difference according to type of specialization. There is a high correlation between motivation and knowledge strategies.