Previously submitted to: JMIR Medical Education (no longer under consideration since Mar 10, 2026)
Date Submitted: Nov 29, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
A Latent Class Analysis of Professional Values among Medical Students in South Korea and China: Focusing on Sociocultural Differences
ABSTRACT
Background:
This study aimed to compare the professional values of medical students in South Korea and China and analyze the influence of sociocultural factors on the formation of these values.
Objective:
This study seeks to provide insights into medical education by identifying cross-national differences.
Methods:
A survey was conducted with 211 medical students from J University in South Korea and 110 students from T Medical College in China. Professional values were assessed using a scale comprising 11 subcategories, including competence, social recognition, collaboration, and social contribution.
Results:
Both Korean and Chinese medical students considered competence and social contributions as important professional values. However, Korean students placed a greater emphasis on collaboration, whereas Chinese students valued social recognition more highly. The LCA results revealed that students from both countries could be categorized into four distinct groups, highlighting the differences in the composition of professional values according to nationality. Additionally, Korean students exhibited significantly higher levels of major satisfaction than their Chinese counterparts did.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrated that medical students’ professional values are shaped by their sociocultural contexts. These differences underscore the importance of developing country-specific educational strategies and career guidance programs that align with the professional values of medical students in the national context.
Citation
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