The Relationship between Academic Self-Efficacy, Academic Resilience, Academic Adjustment, and Academic Performance among Medical Students

Attending University offers students a unique opportunity in terms of experiences and opportunities for psychosocial development. However, different sources of stress might interfere with students’ academic adjustment. The current study aimed to explore the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic resilience with academic adjustment and academic performance.

The present study was descriptive with a correlational design. The participants were 220 medical students (143 female; 77 male) who were selected via stratified random sampling (based on gender) in Kashan University of Medical Science in 2017. The data collection instruments included and McIllroy & Bunting Academic Self-efficacy Questionnaire, Martin and Marsh Academic resilience Scale, and Academic adjustment subscale of SACQ. In addition, students’ Grade Point Average (GPA) and demographic information were sought. The data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and regression analysis in SPSS (version 22).

The results indicated that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between academic self-efficacy with academic adjustment (r = 0.55, P 0.001) and academic resilience (β = 0.26, t = 4.29, P > 0.001) can significantly explain 35% of the variance in academic adjustment. Also, academic self-efficacy (β = 0.22, t = 3.009, P = 0.003) and academic resilience (β = 0.15, t = 2.040, P = 0.043) could explain 10% of the variance in academic performance.

Students’ academic adjustment and academic performance could be enhanced by planning useful programs for improving academic resilience and academic self-efficacy as well as by creating a facilitative environment.