Correlation between academic performance and strength of motivation among dental students of University College of Medicine and Dentistry

Introduction: Student motivation plays a vital role in how well they perform academically. It is particularly important in dental students due to intense studies and tiring clinical duties. Research has been done to find out the relationship of qualitative and quantitative motivation with academic performance, but with contradictory results.Objective: To find the correlation between the strength of motivation and academic performance among dental students of the University College of Medicine and Dentistry (UCMD).Method: A correlational research design was applied. The strength of motivation was calculated using the SMMS-R questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent on WhatsApp to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and final year students. One hundred and forty-four responses were recorded. Out of these, 4 students did not allow to access their results, thus they were excluded from the study. For the rest of the 140 students, their academic scores of Combined Block Assessment 1 (CBA-1) were provided by the administration department. Data analysis was done using the SPSS 25.Results: Strength of motivation and academic performance showed a positive relationship; Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was 0.6 with a p-value of 0.01. With an increase in strength of motivation, the academic performance also increased.Conclusion: A positive relationship was found between the students’ strength of motivation and their academic performance as calculated by the SMMS-R questionnaire. KEYWORDS: Motivation, academic performance.