Abstract: Objective To understand the current status of postgraduate medical students' research engagement, research self-efficacy and research satisfaction, and to investigate the mediating effect of research engagement between research self-efficacy and research satisfaction. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with regards to the research engagement, research self-efficacy and research satisfaction among 9 919 fresh graduate medical students from 74 colleges and universities in China from June to July 2021, t-test or ANOVA was used to compare the differences between the characteristics of different populations. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the correlation of the three, and finally stratified regression analyses was utilized to explore the mediating effect of research engagement between research self-efficacy and research satisfaction. Results Graduate medical students' research engagement score was (3.68±0.91), research self-efficacy score was (3.58±0.92), and research satisfaction score was (3.70±0.99), research engagement was positively correlated with research self-efficacy (r=0.96, P<0.001), positively correlated with research satisfaction (r=0.76, P<0.001), research self-efficacy was positively correlated with research satisfaction (r=0.75, P<0.001), and research engagement played a partially mediating role between research self-efficacy and research self-efficacy (β=0.435, P<0.001). Conclusions Research engagement played a partially mediating role between research self-efficacy and research satisfaction. Institutions can improve research satisfaction by improving research efficiency, increasing research funding, cultivating medical postgraduate students' interest in research, and increasing medical postgraduate students' research self-efficacy and research engagement.

Key words: Questionnaires, Postgraduate medical students, Research engagement, Self-efficacy, Research satisfaction, Mediating role