Lebanese students’ motivation in medical school: does it change throughout the years? A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Students entering medical school are driven by different types of motivation: autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, or amotivation. Motivation types can influence students' performance, outcome and well-being. To our knowledge, this topic has never been studied in Lebanese medical students. This study aims to identify students' motivation types in the first 5 years of medical school at two Lebanese universities (USJ and USEK). It also aims to determine the predominant motivation type of the whole sample. Results may be the first step towards raising awareness about this topic and implementing actions that enhance autonomous motivation. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed between January and June 2017. A questionnaire was sent to medical students by e-mail. The students' academic motivation was assessed using the Academic Motivation Scale. Results: A higher mean autonomous motivation score was found in each academic year, as compared to the mean controlled motivation and amotivation scores. The highest mean autonomous motivation score was seen among second year students, whereas the lowest score was noted in fifth year students. The highest scores for controlled motivation and amotivation belonged to the fourth-year students, and the lowest to the first-year students. Students who were still satisfied with medical studies had a higher autonomous motivation score. Finally, USJ students who were satisfied with their second year training had a higher mean autonomous motivation score than those who were not. Conclusion: This study showed high levels of autonomous motivation in the first five years of medical school. Autonomous motivation was the predominant type in the whole sample. The highest scores of controlled motivation and amotivation were noted in the fourth year. Moreover, high levels of self-determination were seen in students who enjoyed their early contacts with patients through trainings. Actions should be implemented in medical schools to enhance and maintain autonomous motivation, and consequently students' outcome and health-care quality.

Personality traits, emotional intelligence and decision-making styles in Lebanese universities medical students

“…To note that these 15 questionnaires related data was not entered in the final database. The methodology used in similar to the one used in a previous paper [36] Questionnaire and variables…”

Academic motivation scale - reliability and validity evidence among undergraduate nursing students

“…Other studies also pointed out inconsistencies in the number of factors, with extraction of five factors, in which the three types of intrinsic motivation were grouped into a single factor ( 20 , 40 ) , and extraction of three factors ( 41 ) . In a study with Lebanese medical students, PCA was used and the results showed the items converged into a 3-factor solution with explanation of 81.51% of total variance ( 11 ) .…”

“…When assessing the reliability of the scale factors used in this study, previous studies used the Cronbach’s alpha index, considering the following satisfactory values: 0.48 to 0.98 ( 11 ) , 0.62 to 0.82 ( 7 ) , 0.65 to 0.83 ( 10 ) , 0.68 to 0.83 ( 21 ) , 0.70 to 0.86 ( 16 , 18 ) , 0.74 to 0.92 ( 17 ) , 0.77 to 0.90 ( 19 ) , 0.79 to 0.86 ( 38 ) . The reliability of the factors by Cronbach’s alpha and the composite reliability were considered satisfactory in our study, according to the parameters reported in the literature ( 32 - 33 ) .…”

“…The AMS has been translated into several languages ( 9 - 13 ) and used in different educational contexts ( 14 ) and different times, either in its original version with all items or versions including new items, which resulted in a modified instrument ( 15 - 16 ) . Several studies have assessed its psychometric properties ( 6 - 7 , 9 - 10 , 12 - 21 ) , confirming the theoretical model with seven factors through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) ( 6 - 7 , 9 - 10 , 12 - 15 , 17 - 19 ) or rejecting it and presenting alternative models ( 11 , 16 , 20 - 21 ) with a different number of factors. Some of these studies did not demonstrate a correlation between the subscales (motivation continuum) ( 7 - 8 , 18 - 20 , 22 ) , i.e., no simple, positive strong correlation pattern was found between the adjacent types of motivation ( 1 - 2 ) .…”

An Investigation of the Intention and Reasons of Senior High School Students in China to Enter into Medical School

“…We developed the questionnaire based partly on existing questionnaires [13][14][15]. According to the pretesting feedback from 250 students, the questionnaire was further revised and improved to form the optimised nal version.…”