An analysis of the latent profile and influencing factors of the sense of the meaning of life amongst medical students post-COVID-19 from the perspective of Chinese Collectivist Culture

摘要

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, medical students serve as the reserve army for front-line medical personnel and it is crucial for them to maintain a sense of meaning and mission in their lives. This is of utmost importance for their future career development and mental well-being. Moreover, in the collectivist culture of China, the work of medical students is intertwined with the collective culture concept, which is also a significant area when examining their sense of meaning of life. The present study investigated 513 Chinese medical students' sense of the meaning of life in the short-term context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-term context of Chinese collectivist culture. It did so using a meaning of life scale, a depression-anxiety-stress scale, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and a collectivism concept scale. The latent classes of the participants' sense of the meaning of life and the relevant influencing factors were investigated. The results suggested three latent models, which were defined as "High Meaning of Life" (62.38%), "Medium Meaning of Life" (23.97%), and "Low Meaning of Life" (13.65%). Multinomial regression revealed that, compared with "High Meaning of Life," the occurrence ratio of "Medium Meaning of Life" and "Low Meaning of Life" amongst the participants was higher for each increase in stress, anxiety, and depression scores. By contrast, for every one-point increase in resilience, the occurrence ratio of "Medium Meaning of Life" and "Low Meaning of Life" decreased, respectively. In addition, the sense of the meaning of life amongst the participants was also deeply influenced by the concept of collectivism, where greater attention was paid to interdependence, social embeddedness, in-group assortativeness, and-in the particular context of the recent pandemic-co-existence and development.

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