Mental Distress and Professional Commitment among Chinese Medical Postgraduate Students: A Moderated Mediation of Psychological Capital and the Supervisor-Postgraduate Relationship

ABSTRACT

This study determined the relationship between mental distress and professional commitment among medical postgraduate students, and the roles of psychological capital as a mediator and the supervisor-postgraduate relationship as a moderator. This cross-sectional study recruited 836 medical postgraduate students from eight medical universities and the medical college of comprehensive universities in Guangdong Province, China. Participants were assessed through questionnaires, which covered demographic items, the supervisor-postgraduate relationship scale, the psychological capital questionnaire, the symptom checklist − 90 (SCL −90), and the professional commitment scale. We used descriptive statistics to describe demographics and mental distress and professional commitment scores. Pearson’s analysis was used to identify correlations between the variables and the SPSS PROCESS macro was performed to confirm mediating and moderating effects of psychological capital and the supervisor-postgraduate relationship. Mental distress was negatively related with professional commitment (r = −0.262, p < 0.01) and psychological capital (r = −0.442, p < 0.01). Psychological capital was positively associated with professional commitment (r = 0.486, p < 0.01). The confidence interval (CI) suggested that psychological capital mediated the relationship between mental distress and professional commitment (95% CI, −0.198 to − 0.143), and the supervisor-postgraduate relationship had a moderate role between psychological capital and professional commitment (95% CI, 0.069 to –0.212). Hence, educators may refer to these findings to improve professional commitment level among medical postgraduate students.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical postgraduate students
• Mental distress
• Professional commitment
• Psychological capital
• Supervisor-postgraduate relationship

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all postgraduate students who participated in this study. We are grateful to Guangdong Provincial Department of Education and Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education for their financial support. We thank International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for editing this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Key messages

Medical students showed a significantly higher prevalence of mental health disorders and lower level of professional commitment than other groups. The direct links between mental distress and the professional commitment of postgraduates have been observed; however, the connections between mental distress and professional commitment among medical postgraduates have not been elucidated. This study showed mediating and moderating effects of psychological capital and the supervisor-postgraduate relationship between mental distress and professional commitment. Thus, this study provided a reference for the psychological and professional commitment construction of medical postgraduates.

Contribution Statement

QW and XS planned the study. XS conducted a survey. L JM and R YL collected the data. YY and XS analyzed the data. XS and YY wrote the manuscript. QW revised the important intellectual content. YY submitted the study. All authors critically reviewed the final version of the article submitted to the journal.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education (2019 GXJK159), Guangzhou Education Bureau (202213957), Guangdong Province education Science planning project (2023JGXW-110) and Guangzhou Medical University Teaching and Research Ability Improvement Program (2023-86).