Motivation and Psychological Well Being in Medical Students - A Cross-Sectional Study From Pakistan
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Background: Academic motivation among medical students may be associated with career-choice autonomy, family influence, perceived social support, stress, and burnout. Understanding these relationships may help characterize the psychosocial context of medical training. Objective: To examine academic motivation and selected psychosocial factors among undergraduate medical students in Pakistan and assess their associations with career-choice characteristics and demographic factors. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 144 undergraduate MBBS students recruited by convenience sampling from two medical colleges in Pakistan during 2023. Academic motivation, perceived social support, burnout-related characteristics, career-choice autonomy, and parental agreement were assessed using structured questionnaires and standardized scales. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, group comparisons, and correlation analysis in IBM SPSS Statistics version 26.0. Results: Participants had a mean age of 19.15±1.15 years, and 77.8% were female. Medicine was a personal choice for 80.6%, while 97.9% reported parental agreement. The mean Academic Motivation Scale score was 140.43±21.40. Academic motivation showed no meaningful gender or age-group differences. Career-choice coding was correlated with academic motivation (r=−0.215, p=0.010) and the stress-related score (r=0.234, p=0.005), while parental agreement was correlated with the School Burnout Inventory score (r=0.168, p=0.044). Conclusion: Academic motivation was associated with career-choice context, while gender and age showed little relationship with the measured outcomes. These cross-sectional associations should not be interpreted as causal
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