Healthcare Students’ Approaches to Studying in Association With Self-Efficacy and Mental Health: Repeated Cross-Sectional Analysis

Abstract

There has been increasing concern about student mental health, self-efficacy, and their impact on approaches to learning. Little is known about how these three constructs relate and change over time. This is a second study exploring graduate occupational and physical therapy students’ approaches to studying, mental health factors, self-efficacy, and changes in relationships between these factors over time. We found that higher self-efficacy was related to higher deep approach ratings, while higher mental health ratings were related to higher strategic approach ratings and lower surface approach ratings. Self-efficacy and mental health show relatively consistent associations over time with student approaches to learning.