The associations between coping strategies, psychological health, and career indecision among medical students: a cross-sectional study in China

Abstract

Background Medical students experience difficulties in the process of making decisions about their careers, which is referred to as career indecision. This study aimed to examine the difficulties in the career decision-making processes of medical students and to explore the association of coping strategies and psychological health with career indecision. The findings may provide a reference for designing interventions to advance satisfying career decisions for medical students. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 359 medical students was conducted in 5 Chinese medical schools. Students completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire measuring their career indecision, coping strategies, and psychological health. Independent t-test, F-test, bivariate Pearson’s correlation analysis, and linear regression analysis were applied to test the relation between career indecision and the associated factors. Data were analyzed using SPSS V.22 for Windows. A p-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results Difficulties regarding lack of readiness frequently occurred in medical students when making career decisions, with the highest score of 2.48 ± 0.58. Among all the associated factors in this study, career indecision was positively associated with psychological distress problem (β = 0.20, p < 0.05). This study also proved that being at a higher level of career indecision is negatively associated with using problem-focused coping strategies (β = − 0.14, p < 0.05). For the maladaptive coping strategies, applying dysfunctional coping strategies showed a significantly positive association with career indecision among medical students (β = 0.25, p < 0.05). Conclusions Medical students experienced difficulties regarding lack of readiness frequently when making career decisions. Both coping strategies and psychological health were associated with career indecision among medical students. To prevent career indecision, it is necessary to promote earlier career awareness to medical students. Specifically, psychological health should be addressed in career intervention programs for medical students. Additionally, when helping medical students to cope with career indecision, cognitive techniques that reduce the use of maladaptive coping strategies and enhance the use of adaptive coping strategies should be adopted.

The relationship between professional self-concept and career decision-making difficulties among postgraduate nursing students in China: the mediating role of career decision-making self-efficacy

“…Our study showed that the total score of 2.84 (SD = 0.54) for career decision-making difficulties among postgraduate nursing students was moderately high, which was higher than the findings for undergraduate nursing interns (Yin and Dong, 2019) and for medical students (Zhu et al, 2021). The analysis may be due to the following reasons: In China, due to traditional beliefs and social opinions, nurses do not have a high social status, and many students choose nursing because of professional transfer.…”

Dynamics of career intentions in a medical student cohort: a four-year longitudinal study

“…The framework used as our theoretical basis suggests that students’ experiences during medical school may be important drivers of the transformation of broad professional interest profiles into firm career intentions. Moreover, changes in career intentions may result from other factors not measured in our study, such as psychological distress, which has been suggested to foster career indecision [ 18 ].…”

“…Coping strategies were included because they have been described as important influences on career decision-making in medical students; notably, maladaptive coping strategies were associated with career indecision [ 18 ]. Career decision-making may be regarded as a potential stressor and approached differently depending on students’ strategies coping with this stress.…”

“…From a public health perspective, it may be most interesting to better understand the students who are not strongly committed to a specialty or who are undecided, as they might be oriented toward specialties according to public health needs, such as primary care [7]. Previous studies observed that changing career preferences and career indecision were influenced by medical school experiences [14][15][16][17] and by students' personality and coping strategies [15,18]. The impact of other studentrelated factors, such as empathy, on changing career preferences in medical students has not been studied to our knowledge.…”

Predicting effects of career adaptability and educational identity on the career decision-making of Chinese higher vocational students

“…Career education instead of knowledge education should be a predicator of decision-making. As Zhu et al ( 2021 ) stated, decision difficulties come from a lack of readiness and career intervention. Gu et al ( 2020 ) indicated that career intervention course had a positive impact on reducing students’ difficulties of making career decisions.…”