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. 2025 Oct 29;25(1):1518.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-08088-5.

Exploring health and allied science students' achievement emotions profiles: a person-centered analysis

Fraide A Ganotice Jr  1 , John Ian Wilzon T Dizon  2 , Xiaoai Shen  2 , Pauline Yeung Ng  3 , Binbin Zheng  2 , Arkers Kwan Ching Wong  4 , Franco Wing Tak Cheng  5 , Karen Man Kei Chan  6 , Linda Chan  2 , Sarah So Ching Chan  2 , Denise Mae Chua  6 , Jody Kwok Pui Chu  5 , Amy Yin Man Chow  7 , Edwin Chung-Hin Dung  8 , Qing He  2 , Lily Yuen Wah Ho  4 , Julienne Jen  9 , Wei-Ning Lee  8 , Feona Chung Yin Leung  10 , Qun Wang  11 , Kevin K Tsia  8 , Dana Vackova  12 , George L Tipoe  2
Affiliations

Exploring health and allied science students' achievement emotions profiles: a person-centered analysis

Fraide A Ganotice Jr et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: While achievement emotions have gained prominence in education, research remains scarce in interprofessional education (IPE) contexts where students also experience complex combinations of emotions. This study uses a person-centered approach to explore health and allied science students' achievement emotions profiles in an IPE setting, capturing the full spectrum of emotional experiences, to identify clusters of achievement emotions in profiles, clarify between-profile differences, and establish the link between such profiles and student outcomes.

Methods: We measured the participants' achievement emotions, team experience, and satisfaction with life using validated scales, as well as their team readiness and overall IPE performance. Data from 240 Chinese healthcare and allied science students enrolled in an interprofessional education simulation were analysed via a person-centred approach using K-means cluster analysis, multiple analysis of variance, and t-tests.

Results: Three achievement emotion profiles emerged: positive (34%; high positive, low negative), low (28%; low positive, low negative), and mixed (38%; moderate positive, moderate negative). Students with positive profiles showed significantly higher team satisfaction, life satisfaction, and overall IPE performance compared to other clusters. Additional analyses revealed discipline differences, with Law (64%) and Nursing (45%) students showing the highest proportions of positive profiles. Gender analyses indicated that female students reported significantly higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions than male students.

Conclusions: This study identified three achievement emotion profiles, with students showing positive emotion profiles demonstrating significantly better team satisfaction, life satisfaction, and IPE performance. Discipline and gender differences suggest that targeted interventions based on emotion profiles could potentially optimize student outcomes in collaborative healthcare education settings.

Keywords: Achievement emotions; Cluster analysis; Healthcare students; Interprofessional collaboration; Person-centred analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The ethics and procedures of this study were reviewed and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong with approval number EA210433. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sequence of activities for IPE COVID-19 simulation
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The extracted achievement emotion clusters: Cluster 1: positive achievement emotion group (i.e., high positive, low negative); Cluster 2: low achievement emotion group (i.e., low positive, low negative); and Cluster 3: neutral achievement emotion group (i.e., average positive, average negative). X-axis represents three different achievement emotion clusters. Y-axis represents mean scores for achievement emotions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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