As China’s educational landscape continues to witness the expansion of professional degree graduate programs, it becomes increasingly imperative to address the mental well-being of students in medical-related disciplines. These graduate students bear the weight of rigorous academic demands, research commitments, clinical practice, and future employment prospects, making their mental health a significant concern. This study aims to elucidate the nexus between daily stress, learning career adaptation (considered as internal resources), and the mental health status of professional degree graduate students in traditional Chinese medicine colleges and universities. By investigating the relationships between these variables and the mediating role of learning career adaptation, we intend to provide a theoretical foundation for enhancing students’ learning career adaptation and elevating their mental health levels.
Methodology
A cross-sectional survey encompassed 1593 professional degree graduate students specializing in clinical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and nursing across five traditional Chinese medicine universities. A total of 660 questionnaires were successfully collected, yielding a response rate of 41.43%. Daily stress, learning career adaptation, and mental health were quantitatively assessed using the Daily Stressors Scale for graduate students, the Graduate-Students Learning Career Adaptation Scale, and the General Mental Health Questionnaire (GHQ-20), respectively. Descriptive statistics elucidated the prevailing levels of daily stress, learning career adaptation, and mental health. Pearson correlation analysis was employed to dissect the interrelationships among these variables. A structural equation modeling approach was harnessed to construct a latent variable path model that maps the influence of daily stress and learning career adaptation on mental health. The mediating effect’s significance was verified through non-parametric percentile bootstrap analysis.
Findings
The mean scores for mental health, daily stress, and learning career adaptation were 50.56 ± 10.80, 35.12 ± 19.55, and 67.13 ± 7.48, respectively.
Daily stress exhibited negative correlations with the three facets of learning career adaptation, namely career confidence, focus on one’s career, and career control (P < 0.01).
Daily stress demonstrated positive correlations with symptoms of depression and anxiety (P < 0.01).
Self-affirmation, depression, and anxiety displayed negative correlations with career confidence, focus on one’s career, and career control (P < 0.05).
Learning career adaptation was identified as a partial mediator between daily stress and mental health (p < 0.001). The intermediate effect size was calculated at 0.127, accounting for 28.54% of the total effect.
Conclusions
In summary, the study reveals that mental health and learning career adaptation among professional degree graduate students in traditional Chinese medicine universities exist at moderate to upper-middle levels, while daily stress is comparatively lower. Learning career adaptation partially mediates the relationship between daily stress and mental health, notably in mitigating anxiety. These findings underscore the importance of proactive measures by educational institutions to enhance the mental well-being of professional degree graduate students. Moreover, fostering learning career adaptation at both individual and organizational levels can significantly contribute to improved mental health outcomes among these students.
