Academic Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being in Medical Students: A cross-sectional study

Academic self-efficacy, which refers to an individual's ability to understand their skills, is an important aspect of self-efficacy. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic self-efficacy and psychological well-being in students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran in 2020-2021. In this cross-sectional study, a census sampling method was used to enroll 315 students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran. The data collection tools were standard questionnaires for psychological well-being and academic self-efficacy scale. The validity of the instruments was confirmed in previous research by Khanjani et al. and Saadat et al studies. The findings showed a significant relationship between students' academic self-efficacy and psychological well-being and its components (p<0.01). This coefficient also showed a relationship between psychological well-being and academic self-efficacy with students' average grade point (p<0.01), but not with their age. The results of an independent t-test showed no significant difference in the mean of psychological well-being and academic self-efficacy between male and female students. However, the analysis of variance test showed a significant difference in the mean of these variables based on the faculty and educational level. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that higher psychological well-being is associated with higher academic self-efficacy in students. Therefore, it is important to regularly review students' psychological well-being to address any problems in this area.