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Medical Education Research Highlights Self-Care Agency and Growth Mindset in Malaysian Undergraduate Medical Students

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— 1 min read

A study published by researchers at Universiti Malaya found a positive correlation between self-care agency and growth mindset among undergraduate medical students in Malaysia. The research, which was conducted on a sample of 329 students from one public and one private medical university, used a revised version of the Appraisal of Self-Care Agency Scale to measure self-care agency and the Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale to measure participants' mindset.

Key Takeaways:

  • The study found a significant difference in self-care agency between pre-clinical and clinical students, with clinical students showing a higher tendency towards self-care.
  • A higher growth than a fixed mindset was reported among the students, with a weak positive correlation between the means of self-care agency and a growth mindset.
  • The study concluded that self-care agency and growth mindset are positively correlated among undergraduate medical students in Malaysia.
  • The research found that clinical students showed a higher tendency towards self-care than their pre-clinical counterparts, with no differences between genders and universities.

Statistics:

  • 329 students participated in the study.
  • The study showed a weak positive correlation between the means of self-care agency and a growth mindset, with a Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.19.
  • Clinical students showed a higher tendency towards self-care than pre-clinical students, with a significant difference in self-care agency (p = 0.027, Cohen's d = 0.2).
  • The study found that self-care agency showed a significant difference between pre-clinical and clinical students.

Sources:

  • Analyses of self-care agency and mindset: pilot study on Malaysian undergraduate medical students. The Asia Pacific Scholar, 2025,10():35-43. (The Asia Pacific Scholar - http://theasiapacificscholar.org/)
  • A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.29060/TAPS.2025-10-4/OA3559.

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