First-year Medical Students’ Varying Vulnerability to Developing Depressive Symptoms and Its Predictors: a Latent Profile Analysis

OBJECTIVE: Previous meta-analytic data have demonstrated the propensity for mental morbidity among medical students (Rotenstein et al. JAMA. 2016;316(21):2214–36). However, there is a lack of research on medical students’ varying depression vulnerabilities and predictive factors. The present study aims to gain a better understanding of the development of mental health morbidity and its predictive factors among first-semester medical students. METHODS: In November 2020 and January 2021, 184 first-semester students from two medical schools were surveyed regarding depression (PHQ-9), self-efficacy, resilience, and cognitive self-regulation. Using latent profile analysis, we identified distinct depression development profiles. We applied a multinomial logistic regression analysis to determine how self-efficacy, resilience, and cognitive self-regulation and their changes predicted profile membership. RESULTS: Five profiles of depression development were identified: profile 1, no depression (53.8%); profile 2, mild depression (26.1%); profile 3, depression increase I (9.2%); profile 4, depression increase II (9.8%); and profile 5, persistent depression (1.1%). Students with initially high self-efficacy, resilience, and cognitive self-regulation levels were more likely to belong to the no depression profile. A decrease in self-efficacy and cognitive self-regulation was associated with both depression increase profiles (profiles 3 and 4), and a decrease in resilience was found to be a predictor of profile 4. CONCLUSION: Students who enter medical school have varying states of mental health, and they differ in their vulnerability to developing depressive symptoms. The promotion of resilience, self-efficacy, and cognitive self-regulation strategies may be key in preventing students’ depression in the first semester of medical school.