Associations of medical student personality and health/wellness characteristics with their medical school performance across the curriculum.

Purpose: To assess the relationships of cognitive and noncognitive performance predictors to medical student preclinical and clinical performance indicators across medical school years 1 to 3 and to evaluate the association of psychological health/wellness factors with performance.

Method: In 2010, the authors conducted a cross-sectional, correlational, retrospective study of all 175 students at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine who had just completed their third (first clinical) year. Students were asked to complete assessments of personality, stress, anxiety, depression, social support, and community cohesion.