Parental education level and medical student engagement: a multi-center cross-sectional study

Engagement in learning is widely recognized as the time and effort students put into achieving their desired goals and can be measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student version (UWES-S). Higher engagement is associated with stronger learning motivation, persistence, and academic development. Parental education level was previously recognized to positively predict academic achievement and non-cognitive abilities but its impact on the engagement of medical students has not been clearly elucidated. Our multi-center study using UWES-S in 12 medical schools in China aims to figure out the relationship between parental education level and medical student engagement. We divided 10,901 participants from 12 medical schools in China into high and low score groups based on the median UWES score of 72. Univariate analysis revealed 10 variables with significant differences between the two groups. We then performed a multivariable logistic regression with parental education level as the core variable and included some baseline variables to construct a nomogram. Finally, we evaluated the benefits of the nomogram’s prediction through efficacy analysis and refined the subgroup analysis for age and gender. According to the multivariable regression analysis, if the parents’ highest level of education is limited to preliminary school, their children are often less engaged in learning (OR (95%CI) = 1.302 (1.155–1.468), P < 0.001, father; OR (95%CI) = 1.136 (1.022–1.262), P = 0.02, mother). In other education level groups, there was no significant difference in student engagement. Finally, age, gender, ethnicity, major, grade, native place, GPA (Grade Point Average), father’s education level, and mother’s education level were integrated into the nomogram, and the model can be used to predict students’ learning engagement reliably. Our study is the first multi-center cross-sectional study on the academic engagement of medical students in China. We found that whether or not parents in China have received compulsory education can have an impact on their children’s academic engagement. For parents who have received compulsory education, their accompaniment and participation may have a greater impact on children’s engagement in learning than the level of parental education.