The status quo of competitive attitude and its relationship with academic performance in medical students

Abstract

Objective To acquire the situation quo of medical students' competitive attitude and explore the relationship between competitive attitudes and academic performance. Methods Totally 252 medical students in Wuhan University were selected by the convenient sampling method. The competitive attitude scale-Chinese version was used to investigate the competitive attitude of them, the differences of competitive attitudes among medical students of different genders and educational levels were analyzed, and the correlation between competitive attitudes and academic achievements was explored. Results The score of personal development competitive attitude was 52.00(47.00, 56.00), the score of hypercompetitive attitude was 32.00(29.00, 37.00). There were statistically significant differences in scores of personal development competitive attitude [54.00(48.00, 58.00)for males, 51.00(46.00, 55.00) for females, Z=2.18, P=0.03] and hypercompetitive attitude [34.00(30.00, 38.00) for males, 30.00(28.00, 36.00) for females, Z=4.10, P<0.01] among medical students with different genders. No differences were observed in scores of personal development competitive attitude [52.00(47.00, 56.00) for undergraduates, 52.00(46.50, 56.00) for postgraduates, Z=-0.01, P=0.10] and hypercompetitive attitude [31.00(28.00, 37.00) for undergraduates, 33.00(30.00, 37.50) for postgraduates, Z=-1.93, P=0.05) among students with different educational levels. There was a positive correlation between personal development competitive attitude and academic performance (r=0.38, P<0.01), while there was a negative correlation between hypercompetitive attitude and academic performance (r=-0.19, P<0.01). Conclusions The situation quo of medical students in terms of personal development competitive attitude and hypercompetitive attitude are acceptable. However, in the future, it is still necessary to further guide medical students to establish a good competitive attitude and help them correctly understand and deal with the relationship between competition and self-realization. Key words: Medical student; Personal development competitive attitude; Hypercompetitive attitude; Academic performance; The competitive attitude scale