Challenge-Hindrance Stressors and Academic Engagement Among Medical Postgraduates in China: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Background Improving academic engagement of medical postgraduates is crucial for enhancing the quality of learning and the development of medical education. Due to medical postgraduates face high levels of stress and rigorous demands, yet the mechanisms linking challenge-hindrance stressors to academic engagement in this context remain largely unexplored. This study aims to explore the comprehensive relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement among medical postgraduates in China. Methods Data were collected from 437 medical postgraduates in China, to investigate their challenge-hindrance stressors, emotional exhaustion, learning, relaxation and academic engagement. Among these postgraduates, 40.3% were male and 59.7% were female, with the mean age of the participants being 25.71 years. Statistical procedures were conducted using Mplus 8.3, ensuring a robust analysis of the data collected. Results Our study showed that both challenge and hindrance stressors are significantly positively correlated with emotional exhaustion among Chinese medical postgraduates, and emotional exhaustion is negatively associated with academic engagement. Emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement. Learning plays a protective role, moderating the challenge stressors and emotional exhaustion relationship and its indirect effect on academic engagement. However, relaxation was not identified as a significant moderating factor in this context. Conclusion Our findings not only revealed emotional exhaustion as a potential mechanism underlying the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and academic engagement but also validated the moderating role of learning in mitigating the adverse effects of challenge stressors on emotional exhaustion and academic engagement among Chinese medical postgraduates. This comprehensive insight into the complex dynamics between different stressors and academic engagement provides both theoretical and empirical evidence for medical universities. It underscores the importance of interventions to enhance academic engagement in stressful environments and serves as a valuable reference for the development of reasonable assessment systems. These contributions are crucial for fostering a supportive educational atmosphere and promoting the well-being of medical postgraduates.

Highest order moderation of extraversion and neuroticism into the relationship between job stress and flourishing: Mediated by readiness to change among Chinese medical teachers

“…The Job-Demands and Resources (JD-R) Model [ 12 ] proposes that job stress is a consequence of the combination of both demands and resources that arise into the working environments. Specifically, job demands refer to the physical, psychological, organizational, or social aspects of work that require effort [ 13 , 14 ]. Conversely, job resources are those physical, psychological, and organizational aspects of work that can mitigate job demands and their associated physiological and psychological costs, be instrumental in achieving work goals, or foster personal growth, learning, and development [ 15 ].…”