“Prevalence to Process” paper in Medical Education

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There is a well-established literature showing the higher prevalence of stress and threats to wellbeing in medical students.

There is a well-established literature showing the higher prevalence of stress and threats to wellbeing in medical students.  In this paper we argue for the importance of researching specific psychological processes that might exacerbate or moderate these wellbeing issues.  We also argue that several possible factors may be operating in contradictory ways in the medical school context, leading to particular vulnerabilities.

We are delighted that this paper was accepted as a “cross-cutting edge” feature in Medical Education and we hope that it will stimulate important new research on this high-impact topic. We also hope that looking at the combination of these psychological factors will also have flow on effects for other domains where stress, identity and wellbeing are intertwined in similar ways.

We  argue that several possible factors may be operating in contradictory ways in the medical school context, leading to particular vulnerabilities.

It also represents a significant achievement for the lab as a strong collaboration between social and clinical psychology, and medical education.

The full  reference is:

Mavor, K. I., McNeill, K. G., Anderson, K., Kerr, A., O’Reilly, E., & Platow, M. J. (2014). Beyond prevalence to process: the role of self and identity in medical student well-being. Medical Education, 48(4), 351-360. doi:10.1111/medu.12375

and the full text can be found here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/medu.12375/full