Resilience as a Buffer against Stress: Effects on Academic Performance in Indian Medical Students

Objectives: Students in the MBBS program experience stress. The main source of stress is academically related. We assessed academic resilience, a new concept and its relationship with stress and academic performance among medical students at a Government Medical Institute. Material and Methods: Medical students ( n = 327) from the 1 st to 4 th year were included based on probability proportional to size. We assessed their academic resilience using the Academic Resilience Scale-30 (ARS-30) and stress among these using the Medical Student Stress Questionnaire (MSSQ) during the initial months of the academic year. We collected their year-end examination results ( n = 314). Results: Stress level among these students was moderate overall (1.81 ± 0.69). Stress was higher among final-year students. Their main ways of coping with stress were procrastination (60%) and social isolation (52.3%). Students’ academic resilience varied among the years of study; 1 st -year students showed higher academic resilience (median score: 114.50 [105.2, 126.75]) compared to final-year students (median score 103.0 [89.50, 117.75]). The study showed that academic performance had a positive correlation with and academic resilience (rho= 0.182, p <0.05) but a negative correlation with medical student stress(rho= -0.161, p <0.05). The mediation analysis showed that the estimated coefficient for the direct effect of ARS-30 on MSSQ was −0.013, indicating that a one-unit increase in ARS-30 was associated with a 0.013 unit decrease in MSSQ, assuming a linear relationship. Conclusion: Academic resilience showed a direct relationship with academic performance and stress among medical students. Thus, this study emphasises the importance of boosting academic resilience as a viable strategy to overcome stress-related challenges in medical education.