Moderating role of family functioning and resource support in the relationship between career calling and academic burnout among Chinese medical students during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Purpose

This cross-sectional study aims to assess the level of academic burnout among Chinese medical students during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic and identify the potential demographic factors affecting academic burnout. It also explored the relationship between career calling, family functioning, resource support, and academic burnout, as well as investigated whether family functioning and resource support could moderate the relationship between career calling and academic burnout among Chinese medical students.

Methods

The study was conducted in five Chinese cities in 2021. A total of 3614 valid questionnaires were collected to assess the relationship between academic burnout, career calling, family functioning, and resource support, and determine whether demographic factors contribute to academic burnout. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to explore factors correlated with academic burnout and test the moderating effect of family functioning and resource support on the relationship between career calling and academic burnout.

Results

The mean academic burnout score was 3.29 ± 1.17. Sex, major, academic performance ranking, monthly living expenses, physical health, and sleep quality significantly affected academic burnout (p < 0.05). Academic burnout was negatively correlated with career calling, resource support, and family functioning. Family functioning and resource support moderated the relationship between career calling and academic burnout. Simple slope analysis revealed that high family functioning and resource support strengthened the impact of career calling on academic burnout.

Conclusions

Most medical students in China experienced relatively high levels of academic burnout during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, specific demographic factors contribute to academic burnout. Family functioning and resource support moderate the relationship between career calling and academic burnout. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing career-calling education, supplementing family functioning in the form of school support, and providing sufficient smart learning resources among medical students in the post-pandemic era.

KEY MESSAGES

• The results revealed that career calling was strongly and negatively correlated with academic burnout during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic.

• High family functioning and resource support strengthened the impact of career calling on academic burnout during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• Academic burnout
• career calling
• family functioning
• resource support
• medical students

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the students and teammates who assisted in obtaining written informed consent for the survey and in distributing questionnaires to the subjects. We would like to thank Editage (http://www.editage.cn) for English language editing.

Ethical approval

This study obeyed the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and this study involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Harbin Medical University10.13039/100010722 (ECHMU: HMU202072). Because online approach couldn’t receive the written informed consent, verbal informed consent for survey was approved by the ECHMU and obtained from each participates.

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization, Zhang S.-E. and Cao D.-P.; Data curation, Wang Y.-P.; Formal analysis, Lu, F; Funding acquisition, Zhang S.-E. and Cao D.-P.; Investigation, Wang, Z.-J., Liu, X.-N., Zhao C.-X. and Lu, F; Methodology, He J.-J.; Project administration, Zhao C.-X.; Resources, Zhao C.-X.; Software, He J.-J., Liu, X.-N. and Wang, Z.-J.; Supervision, Zhang S.-E. and Cao D.-P.; Visualization, He J.-J.; Writing – original draft, He J.-J.; Writing – review & editing, Wang Y.-P. and Zhang S.-E. All authors had read and approved the final manuscript. He J.-J. is the first author, and Wang, Z.-J. is the co-first author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data avalibility statement

The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Harbin Medical University Postgraduate Scientific Research Innovation Project (YJSCX2020-72HYD) and the key commissioned project of Higher Education Teaching Reform of Heilongjiang Province in 2022 (SJGZ20220070).