Media release
From: Pasifika Medical Association GroupPostgraduate and medical students at the University of Otago’s Christchurch campus completed an online survey during 2019–2020 about their experience of psychological distress and burnout while studying. They reported high levels of psychological distress and burnout—roughly a third reported clinical symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress, and over 3/4 of the students reported burnout. Both individual (e.g., certain personality factors and resilience) and contextual factors (e.g., how much support and how well they thought they were progressing in their studies) were associated with distress and burnout. Exposure to the major earthquakes in 2010/2011 and the 2019 terrorist attack was not found to be associated with increased levels of distress and burnout in this sample. Despite high levels of distress, over two thirds of our sample reported feeling satisfied with life.