Scale Development for “Great Research Mentors” and Its Relationship to Mentees’ Psychological Burnout in Young Physician Researchers

Abstract

Fostering the research skills of young physician scientists is essential to increase the level of medical research in Japan. We aimed to clarify the mentor characteristics associated with a decreased risk of mentees’ psychological burnout. A task team comprising medical doctors, researchers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals developed 35 items related to the characteristics of research mentors. In 2015, we recruited 258 physician researchers who were awarded a new Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists between 2014-2015 and asked them to score 35 items on a five-point Likert scale. We developed a large research mentor scale using factor analysis and investigated which characteristics (i.e., domains) of the developed scale would be associated with a decreased level of psychological burnout measured by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Maximum likelihood factor analysis with varimax rotation found three domains with 16 items. The three domains were labeled “Building a good trust relationship” (6 items, Cronbach’s alpha = 0.889), “Mentorship in research” (6 items, alpha = 0.853), and “Established and authorized mentor” (3 items, alpha = 0.882). Multivariate linear regression models demonstrated that “Mentorship in research” was inversely associated with personal burnout (PBO) (beta = −6.25, p = 0.014) and work-related burnout (WBO) (beta = −4.76, p = 0.029); and “Building a good trust relationship” was inversely associated with client-related burnout (CBO) (beta = −4.91, p = 0.014). A great research mentor may be encouraged to have mentorship in research and a trusting relationship with mentees for mental health support.