TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing task importance and anxiety in medical school
T2 - An instrument development and initial validation study
AU - Phillips, Henry L.
AU - Dong, Ting
AU - Durning, Steven J.
AU - Artino, Anthony R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/4
Y1 - 2015/4
N2 - Recent research in medical education suggests that students’ motivational beliefs, such as their beliefs about the importance of a task, and their emotions are meaningful predictors of learning and performance. The primary purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measure of “task importance” and “anxiety” in relation to several medical education competencies and to collect validity evidence for the new measures. The secondary purpose was to evaluate differences in these measures by year of medical school. Exploratory factor analysis of scores from 368 medical school students suggested two task importance factors and three anxiety factors. The task importance and anxiety subscales were weakly related to each other and exhibited consistently negative and positive correlations, respectively, with three self-efficacy subscales. The task importance subscales were positively related to “metacognition,” whereas “interpersonal skills anxiety” and “health knowledge anxiety” were positively related to “procrastination.” All three anxiety factors were positively related to “avoidance of help seeking,” whereas “interpersonal skills and professionalism importance” was negatively related to help avoidance behaviors. Finally, comparisons across the 4 years of medical school indicated that some aspects of task importance and anxiety varied significantly. Overall, findings from this study provide validity evidence for the psychometric quality of these scales, which capture task importance and anxiety in medical students. Limitations and implications for medical education research are discussed.
AB - Recent research in medical education suggests that students’ motivational beliefs, such as their beliefs about the importance of a task, and their emotions are meaningful predictors of learning and performance. The primary purpose of this study was to develop a self-report measure of “task importance” and “anxiety” in relation to several medical education competencies and to collect validity evidence for the new measures. The secondary purpose was to evaluate differences in these measures by year of medical school. Exploratory factor analysis of scores from 368 medical school students suggested two task importance factors and three anxiety factors. The task importance and anxiety subscales were weakly related to each other and exhibited consistently negative and positive correlations, respectively, with three self-efficacy subscales. The task importance subscales were positively related to “metacognition,” whereas “interpersonal skills anxiety” and “health knowledge anxiety” were positively related to “procrastination.” All three anxiety factors were positively related to “avoidance of help seeking,” whereas “interpersonal skills and professionalism importance” was negatively related to help avoidance behaviors. Finally, comparisons across the 4 years of medical school indicated that some aspects of task importance and anxiety varied significantly. Overall, findings from this study provide validity evidence for the psychometric quality of these scales, which capture task importance and anxiety in medical students. Limitations and implications for medical education research are discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943559520&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00557
DO - 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00557
M3 - Article
C2 - 25850124
AN - SCOPUS:84943559520
SN - 0026-4075
VL - 180
SP - 31
EP - 42
JO - Military Medicine
JF - Military Medicine
IS - 4
ER -