Factors associated with motivation in medical education: a path analysis

Background: This study identified and investigated the relationship between demographics, mental health problems, positive personality traits and perceived social support and motivation in medical education (MME) among first year medical students. Methods: One hundred-thirty eight first year medical students completed the Academic Motivation Scale, Outcome Inventory, Strength Based Inventory, and Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support. Path analysis was conducted to identify relationships between the variables of interest and each type of motivation, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and amotivation. Results: The mean age of the sample was 18.86 +/- 0.74 and 60% of the subjects were female. Path analysis showed that extrinsic motivation was positively associated with being female, personal choice for studying medicine, and grade point average at high school. Intrinsic motivation was correlated with perceived family support, personal choice for studying medicine and the positive attribute of determination. Amotivation was related to being male, personal choice, and depression. While both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation were correlated, they were uncorrelated with amotivation. All variables accounted for 18, 13, and 45% of variance of intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation, respectively. Conclusion: Each type of motivation has different but related predictors. Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation can be promoted, whereas amotivation represents an exclusive issue, one related more to depression, that needs to be reduced to not interfere with academic achievement and quality of life of medical students.