Interplay between personal and professional growth in Italian medical education | BMC Medical Education

Sample characteristics

Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the demographic data of the sample, partial correlational analyses were computed to preliminarily explore the relationships amongst all variables, and the dataset was screened to detect missing data and outliers. No missing data were found.

Of the eligible participants (N = 333) based on the inclusion criteria, 127 of them (38.1%) were evaluated for their soft skills (N = 77 or 60.6% were female; mean age = 21.8 years; SD = 2.38; age range = 18–29 years). Figure 3 illustrates the distribution of participants in the soft skill measurement by year level in medical school.

Percentage of participation in soft skill measurement by year level in medical school

The adherence to soft skills evaluation showed the strong need of the young to understand themselves and know how to improve their personal growth during academic study. Interestingly, a high percentage of third-year medical students sought soft skill measurement, and this percentage dropped noticeably in the sixth year. In particular, the increased exposure to clinical practice seemed to emphasize the relevance of personal growth in integrated academic learning towards enhanced professional achievement.

Psychological and individual testing data

Subsequently, we processed the psychological and individual testing data. The raw scores of the participants in the BFI-10 and SSI tests are shown in Table 1 (see Supplementary Materials).

The data were evaluated using the Shapiro–Wilk Test, which showed that not all variables were normally distributed, similar to the medical school year distribution reported in Table 2 (see Supplementary Materials). Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the participants for the BFI-10 and SSI indexes by year level in medical school (first, third, and sixth).

Pearson’s correlation test was then performed to analyze the relationship between the BFI-10 and SSI indexes (Table 3 in Supplementary Materials). The comparison showed that the conscientiousness and extroversion dimensions correlated positively with all SSI indexes (self-determination: p =.001; resilience: p =.001; empathy: p =.001; assertiveness: p =.001; social support: p =.004; teamwork: p =.001); apart from empathy, which showed no significance, even extroversion was positively correlated (self-determination: p =.003; resilience: p =.001; assertiveness: p =.002; social support: p =.02; teamwork: p =.04). Meanwhile, openness correlated positively with empathy.

Finally, a generalized linear mediation model analysis was performed to determine the predictive effect of the year level in medical school on the SSI indexes (self-determination, resilience, empathy, assertiveness, social Support, teamwork) through agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, emotional stability, and extroversion. Mediation statistical analyses showed significant direct and indirect effects of the factors (year level in medical school) and mediators (conscientiousness/extroversion and openness) on the dependent variables (SSI indexes). The results suggested that the direct and indirect effects play an important role in changing the odds of the SSI indexes owing to specific personality traits. Figure 4 illustrates the graphical prediction models. Conscientiousness was a predictive factor for all soft skills examined: self-determination (β = 0.54, SE = 0.26, 95% CI [1.44; 2.46], t = 7.57, p <.001), resilience (β = 0.48, SE = 0.27, 95% CI [1.18; 2.26], t = 6.33, p <.001), empathy (β = 0.36, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.39; 1.13], t = 4.09, p <.001), assertiveness (β = 0.24, SE = 0.27, 95% CI [0.22; 1.28], t = 2.80, p <.006), social support (β = 0.18, SE = 0.31, 95% CI [0.03; 1.26], t = 2.07, p <.04), and teamwork (β = 0.30, SE = 0.27, 95% CI [0.38; 1.44], t = 3.39, p <.001). As for the extroversion trait, it significantly predicted resilience (β = 0.23, SE = 0.22, 95% CI [0.25; 1.13], t = 3.10, p <.002), assertiveness (β = 0.24, SE = 0.22, 95% CI [0.21; 1.07], t = 2.93, p <.004), and social support (β = 0.17, SE = 0.25, 95% CI [0.01; 1.02], t = 2.02, p <.04). Openness was correlated with (Table 2 in Supplementary materials) and predictive for empathy (β = 0.19, SE = 0.16, 95% CI [0.04; 0.67], t = 2.24, p <.02).

Mediation diagrams for each examined SSI index by beta values

The direct effect of early medical school years (third year vs. first year) on the SSI indexes was significant for self-determination (β = −0.18, SE = 0.96 [95% CI, − 4.23, − 0.41]; t = − 2.41; p <.01) and resilience (β = −0.16, SE = 1.02 [95% CI, − 4.10, − 0.08]; t = − 2.05; p <.04). The direct effect of late medical school years (sixty year^th vs. first year) was significant for self-determination (β = −0.36, SE = 1.24 [95% CI, − 8.57, − 3.67]; t = − 4.95; p <.01) and resilience (β = −0.16, SE = 1.30 [95% CI, − 5.25, − 0.10]; t = − 2.05; p <.04). Figure 5 shows the differences in self-determination and resilience by mean values.

Graphical representation of performance (mean values) in self-determination and resilience indexes