Huang Lei, Thai Jessica, Zhong Yuan, Peng Hao, Koran Jessica, Zhao Xu-Dong
Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Medical Education Division, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Front Psychol. 2019 Aug 21;10:1921. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01921. eCollection 2019.
Empathy is an important element of the physician-patient relationship and is a critical personality trait for medical students. However, research has shown that it declines during undergraduate medical education. It is still unclear how empathy interrelates with the psychological elements of medical students, in particular, self-esteem. This study examined the relationship between empathy and self-esteem to explore other possible methods to improve medical students' empathy.
A stratified sampling strategy was used to select 1690 medical students from 3 medical institutions in Shanghai as study participants. The questionnaires used to collect data included the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Student Version (JSPE-S), the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), and a self-made inventory on personal information. Descriptive analysis, independent -test, One-Way ANOVA, and linear regression were used to analyze the data.
The mean empathy score among medical students was 102.73 with SD = 12.64. Multiple regression analysis revealed that, "age," "perception of the importance of empathy," "academic pressure," "desire to be a doctor after graduation," and "self-esteem" were significant predictors of empathy ( < 0.05) and the adjusted was 0.462. The correlation matrix between empathy and self-esteem was significant ( = 0.510, < 0.01). Self-esteem explained 15.5% of the variation of empathy in the final regression model.
There was a positive association between self-esteem and empathy. Self-esteem is one of many factors which contribute to medical students' empathy. Age, academic pressure, attitude toward empathy and future career also play a critical role in medical student empathy. Enhancing medical students' self-esteem may be an efficacious way to improve medical students' empathy.
同理心是医患关系中的一个重要因素，也是医学生的一项关键人格特质。然而，研究表明，在本科医学教育期间同理心会下降。目前仍不清楚同理心与医学生的心理因素，尤其是自尊之间是如何相互关联的。本研究考察了同理心与自尊之间的关系，以探索提高医学生同理心的其他可能方法。
采用分层抽样策略，从上海3所医疗机构中选取1690名医学生作为研究参与者。用于收集数据的问卷包括杰斐逊医生同理心量表学生版（JSPE-S）、罗森伯格自尊量表（RSES）以及一份自制的个人信息清单。采用描述性分析、独立样本t检验、单因素方差分析和线性回归对数据进行分析。
医学生的平均同理心得分为102.73，标准差=12.64。多元回归分析显示，“年龄”、“对同理心重要性的认知”、“学业压力”、“毕业后想成为医生的愿望”和“自尊”是同理心的显著预测因素（P<0.05），调整后的R²为0.462。同理心与自尊之间的相关矩阵具有显著性（r=0.510，P<0.01）。在最终回归模型中，自尊解释了同理心变异的15.5%。
自尊与同理心之间存在正相关。自尊是影响医学生同理心的众多因素之一。年龄、学业压力、对同理心的态度以及未来职业规划在医学生同理心方面也起着关键作用。提高医学生的自尊可能是提高医学生同理心的有效途径。
