Roots of Resilience: Positive Childhood Experiences, Sense of Belonging, and Burnout Among Medical Students
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2026
Publication Title
Front Public Health
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Burnout affects many medical students, yet the role of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) remains largely unexplored. Sense of belonging protects against burnout, but whether it mediates the link between PCEs and burnout is unknown.
OBJECTIVE: To test whether sense of belonging mediates the association between PCEs and burnout in medical students.
METHOD: This cross-sectional survey study examined medical students (N = 132) at a U. S. medical school using validated measures of PCEs, sense of belonging, and burnout. Mediation was tested using PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. Year of training, age, and gender were covariates.
RESULTS: All primary bivariate correlations were significant (
CONCLUSION: Findings are consistent with a partial mediation model in which belonging explains a substantial portion of the PCE - burnout association. Since belonging is institutionally modifiable, fostering belonging-oriented environments offers an evidence-informed burnout prevention strategy, especially for students with fewer nurturing childhood experiences.
Volume
14
First Page
1857198
Last Page
1857198
Recommended Citation
Izad T, Walkon L, Lloyd R, Nazmifar M, Bienstock R, Mohiyeddini C. Roots of resilience: positive childhood experiences, sense of belonging, and burnout among medical students. Front Public Health. 2026;14:1857198. Published 2026 Jun 25. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1857198
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2026.1857198
ISSN
2296-2565
PubMed ID
42428929