Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender
Abstract Background Medical students in China who face the dual pressure of study and employment tend to experience subclinical depressive symptoms. Parental care plays an important direct and indirect role in the psychological development of medical students, and the extent and mechanism of this ro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2022-06-01
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| Series: | BMC Medical Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03524-2 |
| _version_ | 1811247958632431616 |
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| author | Yiran Geng Wenjing Fei Zhengyu Tang Shaishai Wang Jiachun Yu Ming Zhang Tianyang Zhang |
| author_facet | Yiran Geng Wenjing Fei Zhengyu Tang Shaishai Wang Jiachun Yu Ming Zhang Tianyang Zhang |
| author_sort | Yiran Geng |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Medical students in China who face the dual pressure of study and employment tend to experience subclinical depressive symptoms. Parental care plays an important direct and indirect role in the psychological development of medical students, and the extent and mechanism of this role urgently need to be studied and discussed. Methods After simple random sampling and screening of valid questionnaires, data from a total of 924 people were used. The participants completed the parental bonding instrument, self-rating depression scale, Chinese version of the Jefferson empathy scale-medical student edition and self-rating anxiety scale to evaluate parental care, empathy, depressive symptoms and anxiety. The data were statistically processed using a descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and test of moderated mediation. Results Maternal care had a significant negative predictive effect on depressive symptoms among medical students. Strong maternal care can reduce the occurrence of depressive symptoms in medical students. Empathy played a positive mediating role such that both types of empathy could alleviate the effect of weak maternal care on the depressive symptoms of medical students. However, neither cognitive empathy nor affective empathy played a mediating role in the relationship between paternal care and depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, the relationship between maternal care and empathy was moderated by the medical students’ gender. Conclusions The effect of this relationship on female medical students deserves special attention. The results of this study provide a reference and basis for the adjustment of medical education. This study could also help in the design of effective psychological intervention measures to reduce the degree of depressive symptoms and enhance personal empathy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T15:18:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7c0c0aa0a54146b88587c07150fcd9fd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6920 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T15:18:30Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-7c0c0aa0a54146b88587c07150fcd9fd2022-12-22T03:27:33ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202022-06-0122111110.1186/s12909-022-03524-2Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and genderYiran Geng0Wenjing Fei1Zhengyu Tang2Shaishai Wang3Jiachun Yu4Ming Zhang5Tianyang Zhang6School of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversitySchool of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversitySchool of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversitySchool of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversitySchool of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversityDepartment of Psychology, Suzhou University of Science and TechnologySchool of Public Health, Medical College of Soochow UniversityAbstract Background Medical students in China who face the dual pressure of study and employment tend to experience subclinical depressive symptoms. Parental care plays an important direct and indirect role in the psychological development of medical students, and the extent and mechanism of this role urgently need to be studied and discussed. Methods After simple random sampling and screening of valid questionnaires, data from a total of 924 people were used. The participants completed the parental bonding instrument, self-rating depression scale, Chinese version of the Jefferson empathy scale-medical student edition and self-rating anxiety scale to evaluate parental care, empathy, depressive symptoms and anxiety. The data were statistically processed using a descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and test of moderated mediation. Results Maternal care had a significant negative predictive effect on depressive symptoms among medical students. Strong maternal care can reduce the occurrence of depressive symptoms in medical students. Empathy played a positive mediating role such that both types of empathy could alleviate the effect of weak maternal care on the depressive symptoms of medical students. However, neither cognitive empathy nor affective empathy played a mediating role in the relationship between paternal care and depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, the relationship between maternal care and empathy was moderated by the medical students’ gender. Conclusions The effect of this relationship on female medical students deserves special attention. The results of this study provide a reference and basis for the adjustment of medical education. This study could also help in the design of effective psychological intervention measures to reduce the degree of depressive symptoms and enhance personal empathy.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03524-2Subclinical depressive symptomsParental careEmpathyMedical studentsMental health |
| spellingShingle | Yiran Geng Wenjing Fei Zhengyu Tang Shaishai Wang Jiachun Yu Ming Zhang Tianyang Zhang Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender BMC Medical Education Subclinical depressive symptoms Parental care Empathy Medical students Mental health |
| title | Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender |
| title_full | Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender |
| title_fullStr | Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender |
| title_full_unstemmed | Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender |
| title_short | Parental care and depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students: roles of empathy and gender |
| title_sort | parental care and depressive symptoms among chinese medical students roles of empathy and gender |
| topic | Subclinical depressive symptoms Parental care Empathy Medical students Mental health |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03524-2 |
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