Limitations of the Study
Funding
Conclusion
cultural attachment was associated with significant differences in emotional experience , especially during earlier time point .
As for the emotional reaction of students during their TP1 , students report a range of both positive and negative emotions ; often emotions with opposite effect had comparable mean intensity . However , over time negative emotions tended to decrease while feelings that dissection was “ interesting ” increased ( see similar results in ( Kassam et al ., 2020 ). Over time , negative emotions tended to dissipate in students from all religious , ethnic , or cultural backgrounds ( Jurjus et al ., 2016 ). Ultimately , the gap in emotional experience narrowed among the various ethnic and religious groups and there were average increases in emotional responses such as “ interesting ”, “ stimulating ”, and “ enjoyable ”.
The experiences of negative emotions differed significantly between those with high and low cultural attachment at TP1 and TP2 , but such differences were not observed between these groups for emotions with positive intensity ( except for “ stimulating ” which was different at T1 ). Over time , the high and low cultural attachment groups tended to converge with respect to emotional experience across all reported emotions . This suggests that cultural attachment may set different expectations and worries related to the dissection experience , but the activity itself may normalize the activity across all groups . The high cultural attachment was associated with higher degrees of positive coping at TP1 and TP2 , but also with higher rates of negative coping at all three time points . The general idea of changes in perception and attitude towards cadaver dissection over time were reported in previous studies from Africa : Nigeria , Ethiopia , and Ghana ( Asante et al ., 2021 ; Izunya et al ., 2010 ; Mulu et al ., 2020 ). The changes in the emotional experiences affected in positive and negative ways by their religious and cultural beliefs were also reported in a recent study from South Africa ( Hartmann et al ., 2022 ). This study measured multiple dimensions of coping similar to our study but didn ’ t cluster them into positive and negative categories to explore the change over time . change in emotional experiences over time but did not manifest any significant effect between different ethnic or religious groups .
In addition , our results suggest that while perceptions of cultural attachment appear to affect the rate of change over time in several different self-rated emotional responses , religious affiliation ( Christian or Muslim ) or ethnic background ( Amhara , Oromo , or others ) per se , did not manifest any significant differences across these emotional experiences , nor the rate at which they change for individuals in the sample . However , cultural attachment has a significant association with both positive and negative coping over time . Medical educators , Anatomists in particular should further encourage students to explore their cultural attachment and use it as a coping mechanism in stressful situations like dissection . The ability of cultural attachment to promote coping should be further explored in different fields of health profession education as the patients they treat use similar coping mechanisms .
Limitations of the Study
Because of the quantitative nature of this study , more robust meanings related to the emotional experience of students , as well as their cultural attachment and coping strategies could not be explored . Additionally , while the time series data clarify the order of events , our analysis is nonetheless correlational with respect to the effects of cultural attachment and coping on emotion . Finally , the study sample was derived from a single medical school , rendering its generalizability to other populations unclear .
Funding
This research received no external funding .
Conclusion
Altogether , our findings indicated that a general trend of emotions with positive intensity increased while those with negative intensity tended to decrease over time . Both ethnic background and religious affiliations appear to affect the rate of