Impact of Resilience and Viral Anxiety on Psychological Well-Being, Intrinsic Motivation, and Academic Stress in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Impact of Resilience and Viral Anxiety on Psychological Well-Being, Intrinsic Motivation, and Academic Stress in Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective We aimed to explore the association between academic stress or motivation and the psychological well-being of medical students during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We also explored the effects of their resilience or viral anxiety on this association.Methods This online surveyed for medical students was done during October 20–28, 2021. Participants’ age, sex, grades, and COVID-19-related experiences were collected. Their symptoms were measured with Stress and Anxiety to Viral Epidemics-6 items, Medical Stress Scale (MSS), intrinsic motivation using Academic Motivation Scale, Connor Davidson Resilience Scale-2 items (CD-RISC2), the 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and GRIT scale.Results Among 251 medical students, linear regression performed to explore the predicting factors for psychological well-being or medical stress showed that WHO-5 score was predicted by age (β=0.16, p=0.02) and CD-RISC2 (β=0.29, p<0.001) (F=15.5, p<0.001). In addition, the MSS score was predicted by age (β=0.20, p=0.004), intrinsic motivation (β=-0.31, p<0.001), GRIT (β=0.21, p=0.003), and CD-RISC2 (β=-0.31, p<0.001) (F=15.6, p<0.001). The resilience of medical students partially influenced their intrinsic motivation, affecting their psychological well-being or academic stress. However, no significant association was observed in the case of viral anxiety as a mediator, indicating that viral anxiety did not mediate the association.Conclusion This study highlights the importance of resilience in mediating the relationship between intrinsic motivation and psychological well-being or academic stress. However, viral anxiety was not found to be a mediator in this relationship.