Influence of physical self and mindfulness on the academic possible selves of freshman nursing students

A stratified random sampling method was used to conduct a questionnaire survey on freshman nursing students in a medical college in Yantai city. A total of 360 questionnaires were distributed to participants who meet the following criteria: full-time student; freshman student at school; majoring in nursing (including three levels: junior college students, upgraded college students, and undergraduate students); and voluntary participation in this study. The researchers in this study included three uniformly trained graduate students majoring in psychology, and one of the researchers uniformly explained the purpose of the research and notes to the participants. After obtaining the informed consent of the class counselors, the investigation was carried out during the night classes, participants in this study were voluntary and anonymous. The questionnaires were uniformly provided, and the participants were allowed 30 minutes to answer all of questions about the three scales, and the questionnaires were collected immediately after completion. In all, 341 valid questionnaires were collected. The effective recovery rate was 94.7%. Among them, there were 36 boys and 305 girls; 121 junior college students, 105 upgraded college students, and 115 undergraduate students.

Data collection was conducted with a database built using Epidata 3.1. Descriptive statistics were used to examine the level of the mindfulness, physical self, and academic possible selves in the freshman nursing students. Independent t-test was performed to compare the mean scores of different genders. Correlations among the factors were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the predictive effect factors on academic possible selves. Stepwise variable selection methods (probability of F, using 0.05 for entry and 0.10 for removal) were used to generate the multiple linear regression models. The variables considered for inclusion in each model included six factors of Body Self-description Questionnaire and two factors of Five Factors Mindfulness Questionnaire. All analyses were performed using SPSS 17.0. The significance level used in this analysis was P < 0.05.

The results showed that, on the whole, the mindfulness of the freshmen nursing students was at a middle level (3.03 ± 0.28), their attitude to physical self (3.66 ± 0.58), and academic possible selves were positive (3.33 ± 0.50). There were significant gender differences among coordination, physical activity, athletic ability, strength, endurance, observation, non-response, total physical self-score, and negative future academic possible selves. In the above factors, except negative future academic possible selves, the scores for boys were higher than that for girls (all P<0.05). There were no significant differences in other dimensions (see Table 1).

The results showed that there were significant positive relationships between physical self, mindfulness, and academic possible selves except for non-judging and non-reacting (see Table 2).

Table 3 shows that the total score of academic possible selves of freshman nursing students was taken as the dependent variable, six dimensions of the physical self and two dimensions of the mindfulness were used as independent variable, and then the influence of independent variables on dependent variable was explored by stepwise regression analysis. Four regression models were obtained by analysis, and the values of R, R², and ΔR² of the fourth model were optimal. Therefore, the standard regression equation was selected in this optimal model: Academic possible self = 21.626 + 0.556 body self-esteem + 0.268 acting with awareness + 0.201 endurance + 0.245 description. From this equation, body self-esteem, acting with awareness, endurance, and description can effectively predict the academic possible self of freshman nursing students, and the total explanation rate of these five factors is 33.6%.

On the whole, the freshman nursing students showed a positive attitude toward the body self-description. They held relatively positive body self-cognition in six dimensions of body self-esteem, physical health, appearance, obesity, flexibility, and the whole body, while holding relatively negative body self-cognition in five dimensions of coordination, strength, endurance, athletic ability, and physical activity, it should be noted that the description of physical activity was the most negative. To some extent, this showed that the freshman nursing students had less physical activity. With the deepening of the research on health connotation, the fitness value of physical activity has been increasingly concerned by the society. Having a healthy body is the basic material prerequisite for medical students to do well in medical work in the future, it also helps to better guide patients to prevent disease and promote health through a good combination of medical treatment and physical exercise.15 Studies have shown that the adverse factors affecting medical students’ participation in sports activities include heavy learning tasks, imperfect school site facilities and equipment, lack of basic knowledge and skills of sports, weak motivation and awareness of sports activities.16 Therefore, the school should coordinate the individual needs of students and the requirements of social development on students’ physical education, stand on the height of educating people, standardize the formation of students’ sports values, and strive to improve the reform of teaching methods and the equipment of sports facilities. Students themselves should improve their exercise consciousness, develop good habit of physical exercise, arrange their study, and exercise time reasonably, so as to actively participate in daily study and life with a healthier state of mind and body.17

In terms of gender, boys’ descriptions of coordination, physical activity, athletic ability, strength, and endurance as well as their overall physical selves were all significantly more positive than girls, which were consistent with previous studies.18 This reflects that the enthusiasm of boys to participate in sports activities is higher than that of girls, which, in turn, makes boys’ athletic ability more powerful, and their corresponding abilities in coordination, strength, and endurance are also higher than that of girls.19 Gender is the basic component of self-concept. Gardner et al.20 showed that gender cultural stereotypes also have an effect on the physical self-description of both sexes. Therefore, in the process of physical education, we should pay attention to the influence of the gender role and subjective tendency of college students on their physical exercise behavior orientation, combining with the characteristics of gender roles to teach students according to their aptitude.15 There was no significant difference between the two sexes in other dimensions of physical self, that is, the description and evaluation of physical health, obesity, the whole body, appearance, flexibility, and self-esteem were not affected by gender factors. This was not consistent with the results of Sun Yinjia,18 who used the same scale. By analyzing the reasons, her subjects were junior high school students, and the gender difference in puberty may lead to differences in the attention of male and female students to physical obesity, appearance, and health. This showed from the side that cognitive differences in certain aspects of the sexes may decrease with age.

On the whole, the mindfulness of the freshmen was at the middle level, which supported the research of Wang et al.21 Among them, the levels of acting with awareness and description were high, and the levels of non-judgment, observation, and non-reacting were low. This showed that, at present, the freshmen could clearly describe, understand, and pay attention to their current behavior, but could not deal with internal and external stimuli in an objective way, and thus could not obtain more objective information in the observation without judgment, which was not conducive to them to deal with the problem from a broader and flexible perspective. In general, there was no significant difference in the level of mindfulness between the sexes, which was consistent with the previous studies at home and abroad,22, 23, 24 indicating that gender was not a factor influencing the level of mindfulness. In terms of observation and non-reacting, the level of boys was significantly higher than that of girls, that is, boys could maintain a more objective and comprehensive understanding of the internal and external stimuli acting on themselves, and were not anxious to react immediately under the control of habitual emotions and thoughts, which was beneficial to solve the problem from multiple angles.25

On the whole, the freshman nursing students’ academic possible selves were little higher than medium. Specifically, except for the positive proximal academic possible self, which was at a lower level, the academic possible selves in other dimensions were above the middle level, and distal academic possible self was more positive than the proximal academic possible self. This showed that, on the whole, the freshman nursing students had a positive attitude toward their academic possible self. With the growth of age, college students’ self-awareness and self-evaluation ability are gradually improved, under the influence of multiple factors such as new environment’s competition consciousness and parents’ expectation, their self-expectation in academic performance will be more positive.26 In terms of positive proximal academic possible self, most freshmen have not yet fully adapted to the changes in learning environment and teaching methods of the university campus. The frustration caused by maladaptation may, to some extent, reduced their positive attitude toward their academic ability at the current stage. In addition, as this study adopted the questionnaire survey method, participants might be more modest in their assessment of their current academic possible self. For students who were looking forward to the future, they generally did not have very positive feelings and perceptions about their current academic performance.27

In terms of gender, boys had significantly lower scores in negative distal academic possible selves than girls, that is, compared with girls, boys hold a more positive attitude toward future studies, which was inconsistent with Wang’s research.8 Analyzing the reasons, although nursing departments are dominated by female students, with the development of modern nursing career, to adapt to the increasing clinical demand for male nurses, relevant colleges and universities gradually optimize the teaching mode, pay more attention to the psychological characteristics of male nursing students and teach them according to their aptitude.28 An increasing number of male nursing students realized that nursing has a better development future and are more confident about their future career.29 A higher level of professional identity could reduce the waste of teaching resources and brain drain.30 Therefore, while changing the influence of external environment on male nursing students, we should also actively strengthen their professional ideological education. It was worth noting that Duffy’s research showed that negative possible self was more predictive than positive possible self,31 so educators should pay enough attention to this aspect.

This study showed that there was a significant positive correlation among physical self, level of mindfulness, and academic possible selves. In the further regression analysis, self-esteem, acting with awareness, endurance, and description could effectively predicted the academic possible selves of freshman nursing students, and the total explanation rate of these four factors was 33.6%. Studies have shown that body image is associated with many dimensions of mindfulness. Mindfulness could increase the individual’s non-judgment on the body, confirm to the observation of internal feelings and reduce the destructive behavior to the body when the individual had negative body image, that is, the higher the level of mindfulness, the higher the physical self-satisfaction.32 For freshmen, physical self and academic self were indispensable parts of their self-concept structure and specific expressions of self-concept in different fields.20 Numerous studies have shown that there is a close relationship between physical self and academic possible selves.19 Positive physical self-description was a favorable factor for the academic possible selves of freshmen. Pajas and Schunk pointed out that in the educational environment, students’ perception of their academic ability is a key factor affecting their academic success. When experiencing some negative emotions of the physical self, people with a high level of mindfulness could calmly and objectively observe and describe the internal and external stimuli acting on them, so as to form a relatively objective understanding of themselves. On the basis of a clearer understanding of the external environment and internal response patterns, correctly identified which reactions were based on realities and which were derived from past experiences and patterns; thus, there was more freedom to choose how to respond to realistic stimuli.33

The physical characteristics of an individual were objective, but the perception of the body was subjective and changeable, blindly comparing with the ideal body model in culture would inevitably hurt the sense of self-worth associated with the body and thus affect other aspects of learning and life.34 College period is an important node for students to step into society and cultivate consciousness of lifelong physical exercise.35 As the reserve force of nursing talents, the physical quality and physical exercise concept of nursing students in medical colleges will have an important impact on their future mental health, professional development and other aspects. Therefore, the society, colleges, and other relevant departments should pay more attention to the current situation of physical exercise of nursing students, through the improvement of teaching method reform and sports facilities, mindfulness training, and other ways to guide nursing students to improve their negative physical cognition on the basis of scientific exercise, so as to achieve the purpose of improving overall self-esteem and academic achievement.18