Abstract
Introduction: Academic satisfaction is a critical determinant of academic persistence, professional competence, and psychological well-being among medical students. Given the challenging nature of medical education, identifying cognitive and personal resources that enhance students’ academic satisfaction is highly important. The present study aimed to investigate the causal relationship between academic self-regulation and academic satisfaction, with an emphasis on the mediating role of spiritual intelligence (SI) in a sample of medical students.
Methods: This study employed a descriptive-correlational design utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM). The statistical population comprised all students studying at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in 2024-2025, from whom 345 students were selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected using the Pintrich and De Groot (1990) Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, the King (2008) SI Self-Report Inventory, and the Anbari et al (2013) Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire. The proposed model was evaluated through path analysis and SEM using SPSS 20 and AMOS 26.
Results: The findings revealed that academic self-regulation exerted a significant direct positive effect on academic satisfaction (β=0.28, P<0.01) and SI (β=0.45, P<0.001). Furthermore, SI demonstrated a significant direct positive impact on academic satisfaction (β=0.32, P<0.001). The results of bootstrap analysis confirmed the indirect effect of academic self-regulation on academic satisfaction through the mediating role of SI (β=0.098, P<0.01), indicating partial mediation. The final structural model exhibited excellent fit with the data (χ²/df=2.34, CFI=0.94, TLI=0.93, RMSEA=0.06), confirming the adequacy of the hypothesized model.
Conclusion: The findings underscore the complementary roles of cognitive-metacognitive strategies and spiritual capacities in shaping medical students’ academic satisfaction. Academic self-regulation directly contributes to satisfaction and indirectly enhances it by fostering SI, suggesting that medical educators and curriculum planners should integrate self-regulatory skill development and SI cultivation into medical training programs. Such integrative approaches may serve as protective factors against academic burnout and psychological distress while promoting sustained academic engagement and satisfaction among future physicians.