AI Insight
This study of 2,422 Chinese medical students examined how achievement motivation relates to subjective well-being, finding that success-oriented motivation had a small positive association while failure-avoidance motivation had a small negative association with well-being. The research identified that most of these associations were mediated through general self-efficacy and psychological resilience, with resilience showing the strongest direct relationship to well-being. Three indirect pathways were supported: through self-efficacy alone, resilience alone, and through both factors sequentially.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that medical education programs could enhance student well-being by focusing on cultivating success-oriented rather than failure-avoidant motivation, while also building self-efficacy and psychological resilience. This has practical implications for designing support interventions in medical training environments where students face prolonged stress and demanding assessments.
Understand the Science
IntroductionMedical students face prolonged training, rigorous assessment, and professional demands that may affect their subjective well-being. This study aimed to examine the associations between the two dimensions of achievement motivation and subjective well-being among medical students and to investigate the mediating roles of general self-efficacy and psychological resilience.MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 2,422 medical students in Jining, Shandong Province, China. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate direct and specific indirect associations.ResultsSuccess motivation had a weak positive direct association with subjective well-being (β = 0.060), whereas failure-avoidance motivation had a weak negative direct association (β = −0.063). Three specific indirect pathways were supported: through self-efficacy alone, resilience alone, and self-efficacy followed by resilience. The total indirect associations were 0.293 and -0.056, accounting for 83.08% and 47.25% of the respective model-based total associations. Among the variables included in the model, resilience had the largest direct association with subjective well-being (β = 0.494).DiscussionAchievement motivation was associated with medical students’ subjective well-being through efficacy beliefs and psychological resilience. These findings highlight the importance of fostering success-oriented motivation, strengthening general self-efficacy, and cultivating psychological resilience in medical education.