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Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support

BACKGROUND: Psychological distress among medical students is commonly observed during medical education and is generally related to poor academic self-perception. We evaluated the role of peer social support at medical schools in the association between psychological distress and academic self-perce...

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Autores principales: Yamada, Yukari, Klugar, Miloslav, Ivanova, Katerina, Oborna, Ivana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4251849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25430069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-014-0256-3
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author Yamada, Yukari
Klugar, Miloslav
Ivanova, Katerina
Oborna, Ivana
author_facet Yamada, Yukari
Klugar, Miloslav
Ivanova, Katerina
Oborna, Ivana
author_sort Yamada, Yukari
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Psychological distress among medical students is commonly observed during medical education and is generally related to poor academic self-perception. We evaluated the role of peer social support at medical schools in the association between psychological distress and academic self-perception. METHODS: An online survey was conducted in a medical degree program for 138 international students educated in English in the Czech Republic. The Medical Student Well-Being Index was used to define the students’ psychological distress. Perceived peer social support was investigated with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Poor academic self-perception was defined as the lowest 30% of a subscale score of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure. Analyses evaluated the presence of additive interactions between psychological distress and peer social support on poor academic self-perception, adjusted for possible confounders. RESULTS: Both psychological distress and low peer social support were negatively associated with poor academic self-perception, adjusted for local language proficiency and social support from family. Students with psychological distress and low peer social support had an odds ratio of 11.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1–56.6) for poor academic self-perception as compared with those without distress who had high peer social support. The presence of an additive interaction was confirmed in that the joint association was four times as large as what would have been expected to be on summing the individual risks of psychological distress and low peer social support (synergy index = 4.5, 95% CI: 1.3–14.9). CONCLUSIONS: Psychological distress and low peer social support may synergistically increase the probability of poor academic self-perception among international medical students. Promoting peer social relationships at medical school may interrupt the vicious cycle of psychological distress and poor academic performance.
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spelling pubmed-42518492014-12-03 Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support Yamada, Yukari Klugar, Miloslav Ivanova, Katerina Oborna, Ivana BMC Med Educ Research Article BACKGROUND: Psychological distress among medical students is commonly observed during medical education and is generally related to poor academic self-perception. We evaluated the role of peer social support at medical schools in the association between psychological distress and academic self-perception. METHODS: An online survey was conducted in a medical degree program for 138 international students educated in English in the Czech Republic. The Medical Student Well-Being Index was used to define the students’ psychological distress. Perceived peer social support was investigated with the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Poor academic self-perception was defined as the lowest 30% of a subscale score of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure. Analyses evaluated the presence of additive interactions between psychological distress and peer social support on poor academic self-perception, adjusted for possible confounders. RESULTS: Both psychological distress and low peer social support were negatively associated with poor academic self-perception, adjusted for local language proficiency and social support from family. Students with psychological distress and low peer social support had an odds ratio of 11.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1–56.6) for poor academic self-perception as compared with those without distress who had high peer social support. The presence of an additive interaction was confirmed in that the joint association was four times as large as what would have been expected to be on summing the individual risks of psychological distress and low peer social support (synergy index = 4.5, 95% CI: 1.3–14.9). CONCLUSIONS: Psychological distress and low peer social support may synergistically increase the probability of poor academic self-perception among international medical students. Promoting peer social relationships at medical school may interrupt the vicious cycle of psychological distress and poor academic performance. BioMed Central 2014-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4251849/ /pubmed/25430069 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-014-0256-3 Text en © Yamada et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yamada, Yukari
Klugar, Miloslav
Ivanova, Katerina
Oborna, Ivana
Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title_full Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title_fullStr Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title_full_unstemmed Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title_short Psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
title_sort psychological distress and academic self-perception among international medical students: the role of peer social support
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4251849/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25430069
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12909-014-0256-3
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