Impact of social interdependence on emotional well-being of medical students

OBJECTIVE:To observe the effect of social interdependence on emotional well-being in medical students.METHODS:This cross-sectional study was conducted in Karachi from June 2013 to January 2014 and comprised first-year medical students of 5 private and 3 public-sector colleges. Students of both genders aged 19-24 years were included. Quantitative aspects of social and emotional wellness were evaluated using a structured questionnaire from the wellness wheel on a four-point Likert\u27s scale (score ranging from 0 to 3). Two focus group discussions were conducted in each medical college from the qualitative aspect.RESULTS:Of the 736 participants, 526(71.47%) were females and 210(28.53%) were males. Males reported significantly less inclination towards exhibiting fairness, solving problems, teaching batch fellows and attending group discussion (p\u3c0.05). They were significantly least anxious with less frequency of helping others during emotional outbursts (p\u3c0.05). Females had higher frequency of close friends and self-improvement (p\u3c0.05). The scores of social wellness were significantly better in females compared to males (p\u3c0.001) while there was no significant difference in emotional wellness on the basis of gender (p\u3e0.05). Social communication and help was highly positively correlated with self-content in students (p\u3c0.05)