Background: A student’s motivation is a key factor in their success in undertaking an education endeavour. However, how this relates to involvement in research by medical students is unclear.
Methods: An electronic questionnaire was sent to all medical students at our institution. To ascertain students’ motivation to undertake research, they were asked an open-ended question to describe the single major factor that would encourage them to get involved in research as a medical student. A framework of self-determination theory was used to deductively code the responses as intrinsic motivation (“IM”; e.g., interest/passion) or extrinsic motivation (“EM”; e.g. improving CV). The two groups were then contrasted in relation to their research engagement.
Results: A total of 348 students were included in the survey, of whom 204 were coded as IM responses, and 144 were coded as EM responses. Students who engaged in extra-curricular research activities were more likely to report an underlying EM (48% vs 36%, p = 0.03). They were also older (23.7 ± 3.5 vs 21.9 ± 3.7, p = 0.005), and more likely to have completed a prior research degree (15% vs 3%, p = 0.01).
Conclusion: In this study, EM was a bigger influencer on research involvement by medical students than IM. Future studies should explore promoters of IM, and include longitudinal data in order to assess whether EM students continue to be involved in research long-term.



中文翻译：

---

内在动机与外在动机作为医学生早期参与研究的驱动力

背景：学生的积极性是他们成功开展教育事业的关键因素。然而，这与医学生参与研究有何关系尚不清楚。
方法：向我们机构的所有医学生发送一份电子问卷。为了确定学生进行研究的动机，他们被问到一个开放式问题，以描述鼓励他们作为医学生参与研究的单一主要因素。自我决定理论的框架被用来将反应演绎地编码为内在动机（“IM”；例如，兴趣/激情）或外在动机（“EM”；例如，改善简历）。然后将两组的研究参与度进行对比。
结果：共有 348 名学生被纳入调查，其中 204 人被编码为 IM 响应，144 人被编码为 EM 响应。从事课外研究活动的学生更有可能报告潜在的 EM（48% 对 36%，p = 0.03）。他们的年龄也更大（23.7 ± 3.5 vs 21.9 ± 3.7，p = 0.005），并且更有可能完成了先前的研究学位（15% vs 3%，p = 0.01）。
结论：在本研究中，EM 对医学生参与研究的影响比 IM 更大。未来的研究应该探索 IM 的推动者，并包括纵向数据，以评估 EM 学生是否继续长期参与研究。