Exploring health and allied science students’ achievement emotions profiles: a person-centered analysis

Background: While achievement emotions have gained prominence in education, research remains scarce in interprofessional education (IPE) contexts where students also experience complex combinations of emotions. This study uses a person-centered approach to explore health and allied science students’ achievement emotions profiles in an IPE setting, capturing the full spectrum of emotional experiences, to identify clusters of achievement emotions in profiles, clarify between-profile differences, and establish the link between such profiles and student outcomes. Methods: We measured the participants’ achievement emotions, team experience, and satisfaction with life using validated scales, as well as their team readiness and overall IPE performance. Data from 240 Chinese healthcare and allied science students enrolled in an interprofessional education simulation were analysed via a person-centred approach using K-means cluster analysis, multiple analysis of variance, and t-tests. Results: Three achievement emotion profiles emerged: positive (34%; high positive, low negative), low (28%; low positive, low negative), and mixed (38%; moderate positive, moderate negative). Students with positive profiles showed significantly higher team satisfaction, life satisfaction, and overall IPE performance compared to other clusters. Additional analyses revealed discipline differences, with Law (64%) and Nursing (45%) students showing the highest proportions of positive profiles. Gender analyses indicated that female students reported significantly higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions than male students. Conclusions: This study identified three achievement emotion profiles, with students showing positive emotion profiles demonstrating significantly better team satisfaction, life satisfaction, and IPE performance. Discipline and gender differences suggest that targeted interventions based on emotion profiles could potentially optimize student outcomes in collaborative healthcare education settings.