The relationships between resilience and student personal factors in an undergraduate medical program

Abstract

Background Resilience is an essential aspect of wellbeing that plays a major role in undergraduate medical education. Various personal and social factors are known to affect resilience. Empirical evidence remains limited regarding resilience and the personal factors that affect it among undergraduate medical students in an Asian setting. Therefore, this study aims to identify undergraduate medical students’ level of resilience and its relationships to personal factors in Indonesia. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students in years 1–6. Respondents were asked to complete three validated questionnaires: the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) to measure resilience, the Brief-COPE to assess coping mechanisms, and the Big Five Personality Test to measure five personality dimensions. Descriptive and Pearson’s correlation analyses were completed to explore relationships between each variable. Regression analysis was completed to analyze the extent to which coping mechanisms, personality, and academic achievement explained the variation in resilience scores. Results A total of 1040 respondents completed the questionnaires (a 75.42% response rate). Students in both preclinical and clinical stages had quite good levels of resilience and higher scores on adaptive coping mechanisms than on maladaptive coping mechanisms. Adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms, Big Five Personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness), and students’ academic achievement explained 46.9% of students’ resilience scores. Conclusions Although the resilience scores in this study were comparable to resilience scores among undergraduate medical students in other settings, we found that coping mechanisms, personality traits, and academic performance may predict resilience among medical students.

Symptoms of depression and anxiety in Indonesian medical students: association with coping strategy and resilience

“…Respondents of this study show moderate level of resilience (68 [58–77]), slightly higher than the results of another study conducted in FKUI (64.76 to 67.60) [ 41 ] and also higher than a study from 3 medical schools in China (61.69 [SD = 10.55]) [ 42 ]. Higher resilience is moderately correlated with lower scores of both depression and anxiety symptoms.…”

Professional identity formation of medical students: A mixed-methods study in a hierarchical and collectivist culture

“…Therefore, student-centered and personalized learning opportunities enriched with reflection and mentoring are necessary in medical schools to nurture motivation and a positive PIF process. Our study shows the importance of motivation and other personal factors, such as coping mechanisms, in students’ resilience in their medical education endeavor, which is instrumental for PIF [ 45 , 46 ]. Second, medical students must consider what they are becoming and where they are in this process.…”

Could Perception of Digital Learning Environment Potentially Affect First-Year Undergraduate Medical Students Learning Motivation? A Study during Distance Learning Transition due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

“…Therefore, it fostered self-confidence in students. Students with high academic perceptions might have managed to make arrangements in terms of independent learning abilities because they believe they can do a job successfully, which can then be referred into a form of motivation (39)(40)(41)(42).…”

“…High academic perception can also make students more interested in presenting and setting academic goals to achieve specific learning outcomes and consequently become more motivated to learn. In other words, academic achievement can make students believe that their efforts to learn will produce positive results so that they will then use effective learning strategies (39,42,43).…”