Relationships among Academic Delay of Gratification, Motivated Learning Strategies, and Academic Grit in Manila City Medical Students

To become a physician, one must invest a significant amount of time and resist immediate gratification for something more rewarding and fulfilling in the future. Additionally, being in medical school also requires perseverance and effective study habits. Therefore, medical students are familiar with Academic Delay of Gratification (ADOG), Academic Grit (AG), and Motivated Strategies for Learning (MSL) as it helps them to be successful in their studies and future careers. To understand the relationship between the three aforementioned variables, this study aimed to investigate the levels of medical students in Manila City in terms of their ADOG, AG, and MSL. In order to do so, survey-questionnaires were provided to the 121 medical students who were selected using a purposive sampling technique in this correlational quantitative research design. Based on the descriptive statistics, most medical students were shown to have high levels of ADOG, high levels of MSL domains (except Test Anxiety), and moderate to high levels of AG. Moreover, Spearman’s Rho analysis revealed that ADOG and MSL domains have a weak but statistically significant positive correlation, except self-regulation which had moderate positive correlation. A significant relationship but weak positive correlation was also found between ADOG and AG. Meanwhile, results showed a significant moderate to strong positive correlation between AG and MSL domains except test anxiety. Findings from the current research therefore emphasize the notion that self-regulation, a key component of the "cool" cognitive system in the CAPS Theory, is crucial for enhancing ADOG, MSL, and AG among medical students.