Impostor phenomenon and its relationship with perfectionism in medical students: A cross-sectional study

Objective: İmpostor phenomenon is a condition in which an individual attributes his/her success to external causes despite concrete evidence. It is reported to be common in medical students and is associated with psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and burnout. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of impostor phenomenon on medical students and its relationship with perfectionism. Materials and methods: This study was a cross-sectional and descriptive study conducted with the participation of Konya Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Medicine semester 1, semester 4 and semester 6 students. A questionnaire including sociodemographic information form, Clance İmpostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS) and Positive-Negative Perfectionism Scale (APS-R) were administered to the participants face to face. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 20.0 program was used for statistical analysis. Statistical significance was accepted as p<0.05. Results: A total of 386 volunteer physician trainees from semester 1, semester 4 and semester 6 students of the Faculty of Medicine participated in the study. 29.0% (n=112), 35.9% (n=138) and 35.2% (n=136) of the participants were semester 1, semester 4 and semester 6 students, respectively. The mean age was 18.9±1 years for semester 1 students, 21.8±1.2 years for semester 4 students and 24.4±1.8 years for semester 6 students. 63% (n=243) of the participants were female. The mean CIPS score of female students (47.2±13.5) was higher than the mean CIPS score of male students (41.6±12.5) (p<0.001). In the study, the CIPS scores of the participants who wanted to drop out of medical school (48.1±13.5) were higher than the CIPS scores of those who did not want to drop out (43.1±13.0) and were statistically significant (p<0.001). The mean scale score of the participants who did not use social media (50.3±12.1) was higher than those who did (p=0.009). The mean scores of those who compared themselves with others on social media vi (48.8±13.7) were higher than those who did not (p<0.001). A moderate positive correlation was found between the APS-R Conflict subscale and CIPS (r=0.570, p<0.001). Conclusion: The study was conducted with the participation of semester 1, semester 4 and semester 6 students. In the study, it was seen that the effects of impostor phenomenon were mostly experienced by semester 4 students. In the study, it was determined that female students were under the impostor effect more than male students. In the study, it was found that the comparison made by the participants' families was not related to impostor feelings, but comparing themselves was related to impostor feelings. A relationship was found between the impostor phenomenon and psychiatric disorders. In the study, most of the participants with psychiatric disorders had anxiety or depression. In this study, we also think that the impostor phenomenon may be effective in the desire to drop out of medical school. A positive correlation was found between the impostor phenomenon and negative perfectionism.