Imposter Syndrome and Irrational Procrastination: A Single Institution Cross-sectional Study of Preclinical US Medical Student

<ns3:p> Introduction In this study, the relationship between imposter syndrome and irrational procrastination was examined in first- and second-year pre-clinical medical students (M1s and M2s, respectively). Imposter syndrome describes the phenomenon whereby individuals feel that they are undeserving of their accomplishments despite evidence to the contrary. It has been associated with low self-esteem, higher rates of procrastination, and burnout, making it a critical component in gauging student wellness. Methods Anonymous surveys were sent to one hundred twenty M1 students and one hundred twenty-six M2 students, all of whom attend the same university, and twenty-eight responses were collected over the span of two weeks. The surveys were composed of two questions on school year and gender, seven questions from the Impostorism Scale, and nine questions from the Irrational Procrastination Scale. Analysis was conducted using a Kolmogrov-Smirnov test and Spearman’s correlations on IBM SPSS Statistics 28.0.1.0. Results The Kruskal-Wallis test demonstrated that M2 students scored higher on the Irrational Procrastination Scale when compared to M1 students ( <ns3:italic>H</ns3:italic> (1) = 5.785, p = .016). Additionally, Spearman’s correlation indicated that the Impostorism and Irrational Procrastination Scores did not correlate in the data ( <ns3:italic>r</ns3:italic> (28) = .373, p = .051). Conclusions Based on this analysis, imposter syndrome and procrastination appear to be prevalent issues among the M1 and M2 students surveyed in this study, with higher rates of procrastination seen in M2 students. </ns3:p>