PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF WELL-BEING AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS: LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AS A MEDIATOR

Abstract

Mental health of medical students is an area of major concern, because they have to safeguard the health of public after the completion of their medical studies. The aim of the current study was to examine predictive relationships of attribution to success and failure, learning self-efficacy, and academic motivation with learned helplessness and well-being among medical students. The sample comprised 300 medical students (Male students= 171, Female students= 129), within age range of 18 to 25 years (M= 21.94, SD= 1.68). Demographic sheet, Attribution to Success and Failure Questionnaire, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Learned Helplessness Scale, Academic Motivation Scale, and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale were used to collect data. SPSS version 23.00 was used to analyze the data. The results indicated significant correlations among study variables. Results of hierarchal regression analyses indicated that learning self-efficacy, internal attribution to failure, internal academic motivation and amotivation significantly predicted learned helplessness (R²= .42), and learning self-efficacy, external attribution to success, learned helplessness appeared as significant predictors of well-being of medical students (R²= .41). Learned helplessness partially mediated in the relationship of attribution to success, academic motivation, and learning self-efficacy with the well-being of medical students. Implications of the study have been discussed.