ArticleBMC medical education2024
Impostor phenomenon and its association with resilience in medical education - a questionnaire study among Swedish medical students.
Article in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Global prevalence of impostor phenomenon in medical students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- The Frankfurt 'whisper exam' - a case-based collaborative summative examination to assess clinical decision-making skills in hygiene, microbiology and virology- feasibility and evaluation.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Associations among impostor phenomenon, self-compassion, shame, and social anxiety in college students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Academic self-perceptions and AI use among health professions students: the serial mediating roles of learned helplessness and academic-clinical learning loneliness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The Relation Between Imposter Phenomenon and Self-Critical, Narcissistic, and Rigid Perfectionism: An Observational Study from a Women's Medical College in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Psychoactive Substance Use and Its Association with Mental Health Symptomatology Among Latvian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Examining the role of social support in imposter phenomenon among medical students through mediation and moderation analysis of anxiety and stress.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Coping Mechanisms and Resilience Strategies for Addressing Impostor Phenomenon in Healthcare Professionals.Cureus · 2025Review
- Exploring the association between mindfulness and imposter syndrome in medical students: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- The relationship of imposter phenomenon, self-esteem, and resilience: promoting well-being among registered nurses.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Mapping the multidimensional factors of medical student resilience development: A scoping review.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Impostor phenomenon and its association with perceived stress and anxiety among students in medical and social sciences at a Swedish university.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- The Struggle to Belong for Underrepresented Medical Students: A Narrative Review.Perspectives on medical education · 2025Review
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Abstract
backgroundConcern over medical students' well-being is a global issue, with studies showing high psychological distress rates. Impostor Phenomenon (IP), i.e., underestimating one's abilities, attributing success to external factors, and feeling like a fraud, has been implicated as one reason behind these troubling findings. Meanwhile, resilience has been suggested to protect against psychological distress. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of IP and its association with resilience among undergraduate medical students.
methodsThe Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and sociodemographic questions were completed by 457 medical students registered in their 2-10th semester at a Swedish university. Of the respondents, 62.6% identified as women, 36.1% as men, and 1.3% as others.
resultsThe prevalence of IP was 58.4% (defined as CIPS score ≥ 62). According to the CIPS scoring guidelines, 10.3% of participants had low IP, 29.5% moderate, 41.6% frequent, and 18.6% intense IP. Of all participants, almost 90% experienced at least moderate and 60.2% frequent to intense IP. Women had significantly higher CIPS scores and lower BRS scores than men. In contrast, neither attending semester nor age group significantly impacted CIPS scores. Finally, there was a moderate inverse correlation between the level of resilience and the prevalence of IP.
conclusionsOur findings suggest that the majority of Swedish medical students feels like an impostor, and of these students, most do so frequently. Furthermore, IP is more prevalent among female students - who also show lower levels of resilience. Moreover, our results indicated that IP could hinder achieving higher resilience. Future longitudinal studies should investigate how gender norms may contribute to IP feelings and explore the potential advantages of counteracting IP and strengthening resilience among medical students. However, targeted interventions addressing individual students' IP and resilience are insufficient. There is also a need to address structural aspects of the educational environment, such as gender stereotypes, that may contribute to IP.
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