The impact of career calling on medical students’ academic burnout: a chain mediation model

This study aims to examine the chain mediating roles of natural connection and perceived social support in the relationship between career calling and academic burnout among medical students. A questionnaire survey was administered to 2,103 medical students using validated scales, including the Career Calling Scale, Academic Burnout Scale, Natural Connection Scale, and Perceived Social Support Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed. Mediation effects were tested using the PROCESS macro (Version 4.2, Model 6) for SPSS, with 5000 bootstrap samples to generate bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals for indirect effects. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 for all analyses. Career calling significantly and negatively predicted academic burnout among medical students. Both natural connection and perceived social support independently mediated the relationship between career calling and academic burnout. Furthermore, career calling also influenced academic burnout through a chain-mediated pathway involving natural connection followed by perceived social support. The findings highlight the dual mediating roles of natural connection and perceived social support, suggesting that enhancing these factors could mitigate academic burnout by strengthening career calling in medical education.