Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Impostor phenomenon and psychological outcomes among family medicine residents: a cross-sectional study in Croatia Cover

Impostor phenomenon and psychological outcomes among family medicine residents: a cross-sectional study in Croatia

Open Access
|Jun 2025

References

  1. Pascoe A, Johnson D, Putland M, Willis K, Smallwood N. Differential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health symptoms and working conditions for senior and junior doctors in Australian hospitals. J Occup Environ Med 2022;64(5):e291–9. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002505" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1097/JOM.0000000000002505</a></pub-id>
  2. Gisselbaek M, Hontoir S, Pesonen AE, Seidel L, Geniets B, Steen E, Barreto Chang OL, Saxena S. Impostor syndrome in anaesthesiology primarily affects female and junior physicians. Br J Anaesth 2024;132:40–9. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bja.2023.09.025" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/j.bja.2023.09.025</a></pub-id>
  3. Villwock JA, Sobin LB, Koester LA, Harris TM. Impostor syndrome and burnout among American medical students: a pilot study. Int J Med Educ 2016;7:364–9. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5801.eac4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.5116/ijme.5801.eac4</a></pub-id>
  4. Thomas M, Bigatti S. Perfectionism, impostor phenomenon, and mental health in medicine: a literature review. Int J Med Educ 2020;11:201–13. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5f54.c8f8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.5116/ijme.5f54.c8f8</a></pub-id>
  5. Clance PR, Imes SA. The impostor phenomenon in high achieving women: dynamics and therapeutic interventions. Psychother Theory Res Pract 1978;15:241–7. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1037/h0086006</a></pub-id>
  6. Thompson T, Davis H, Davidson J. Attributional and affective responses of impostors to academic success and failure outcomes. Pers Indiv Differ 1998;25:381–96. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00065-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/S0191-8869(98)00065-8</a></pub-id>
  7. Gottlieb M, Chung A, Battaglioli N, Sebok-Syer SS, Kalantari A. Impostor syndrome among physicians and physicians in training: A scoping review. Med Educ 2020;54:116–24. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.13956" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1111/medu.13956</a></pub-id>
  8. Harvey SB, Epstein RM, Glozier N, Petrie K, Strudwick J, Gayed A, Dean K, Henderson M. Mental illness and suicide among physicians. Lancet 2021;398:920–30. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01596-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01596-8</a></pub-id>
  9. Lunnay B, Foley K, Lawn S, Baigent M, Weightman A, Lawrence D, Drummond V, Baker M, Ward PR. Work-related impacts on doctors’ mental health: a qualitative study exploring organisational and systemslevel risk factors. BMJ Open 2024;14(11):e088283. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088283" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088283</a></pub-id>
  10. Feenstra S, Begeny CT, Ryan MK, Rink FA, Stoker JI, Jordan J. Contextualizing the impostor “syndrome”. Front Psychol 2020;11:575024. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.3389/fpsyg.2020.575024</a></pub-id>
  11. Liu RQ, Davidson J, Van Hooren TA, Van Koughnett JAM, Jones S, Ott MC. Impostorism and anxiety contribute to burnout among resident physicians. Med Teach 2022;44:758–64. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2022.2028751" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1080/0142159X.2022.2028751</a></pub-id>
  12. Čarapina Zovko I, Milić J, Vucemilovic FB, Jemrić N, Sulić P, Turudić M, Vidović D, Jelovica D, Padjen I, Ivanac G, Ivić V, Škrlec I, Biloglav Z. Translation of the Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale into the Croatian language. South Eur Med J 2021;5:145–56. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.26332/seemedj.v5i1.190" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.26332/seemedj.v5i1.190</a></pub-id>
  13. Clance PR. Clance IP Scale. In: Clance PR. The impostor phenomenon: when success makes you feel like a fake. Toronto: Bantam Books; 1985. p. 20–2.
  14. Lovibond SH, Lovibond PF. Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. 2<sup>nd</sup> ed. Sydney: Psychology Foundation of Australia; 1995.
  15. Rogić Vidaković M, Šimić N, Poljičanin A, Nikolić Ivanišević M, Ana J, Đogaš Z. Psychometric properties of the Croatian version of the depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21 and multiple sclerosis impact scale-29 in multiple sclerosis patients. Mult Scler Relat Disord 2021;50:102850. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2021.102850" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/j.msard.2021.102850</a></pub-id>
  16. Ikbaal MY, Salim Musa NA. Prevalence of impostor phenomenon among medical students in a Malaysian private medical school. Int J Med Students 2018;6:66–70. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.5195/ijms.2018.10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.5195/ijms.2018.10</a></pub-id>
  17. Legassie J, Zibrowski EM, Goldszmidt MA. Measuring resident well-being: impostorism and burnout syndrome in residency. J Gen Intern Med 2008;23:1090–4. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0536-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1007/s11606-008-0536-x</a></pub-id>
  18. Oriel K, Plane MB, Mundt M. Family medicine residents and the impostor phenomenon. Fam Med 2004;36:248–52. PMID: <pub-id pub-id-type="pmid">15057614</pub-id>
  19. Mata DA, Ramos MA, Bansal N, Khan R, Guille C, Di Angelantonio E, Sen S. Prevalence of depression and depressive symptoms among resident physicians: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA 2015;314:2373–83. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.15845" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1001/jama.2015.15845</a></pub-id>
  20. GBD 2019 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet 2020;396:1204–22. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32226-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32226-1</a></pub-id>
  21. Hrvatska liječnička komora (HLK). Digitalni atlas hrvatskog liječništva [Digital atlas of medicine, in Croatian]. Zagreb: HLK; 2025.
  22. Hrvatski zavod za javno zdravstvo (HZJZ). Hrvatski zdravstveno-statistički ljetopis za 2023. g. – tablični podaci [Croatian health statistics 2023, in Croatian] [displayed 15 May 2024]. Available at <a href="https://www.hzjz.hr/statisticki-podaci/hrvatski-zdravstveno-statisticki-ljetopis-za-2023-g-tablicni-podaci/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">https://www.hzjz.hr/statisticki-podaci/hrvatski-zdravstveno-statisticki-ljetopis-za-2023-g-tablicni-podaci/</a>
  23. LaDonna KA, Ginsburg S, Watling C. “Rising to the level of your incompetence”: what physicians’ self-assessment of their performance reveals about the imposter syndrome in medicine. Acad Med 2018;93:763–8. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000002046" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1097/ACM.0000000000002046</a></pub-id>
  24. Shanafelt TD, Dyrbye LN, Sinsky C, Trockel M, Makowski MS, Tutty M, Wang H, Carlasare LE, West CP. Imposter phenomenon in US physicians relative to the US working population. Mayo Clin Proc 2022;97:1981–93. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2022.06.021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/j.mayocp.2022.06.021</a></pub-id>
  25. Neufeld A, Babenko O, Malin G. Not all ‘impostors’ are created equal: A dimensional, person-centered, and theory-based analysis of medical students. Med Teach 2024;46:1044–51. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2024.2345268" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1080/0142159X.2024.2345268</a></pub-id>
  26. El-Ashry AM, Taha SM, Elhay ESA, Hammad HA, Khedr MA, El-Sayed MM. Prevalence of imposter syndrome and its association with depression, stress, and anxiety among nursing students: a multi-center cross-sectional study. BMC Nurs 2024;23:862. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02414-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1186/s12912-024-02414-w</a></pub-id>
  27. Dumitrescu R, De Caluwé E. Individual differences in the impostor phenomenon and its relevance in higher education in terms of burnout, generalized anxiety, and fear of failure. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2024;249:104445. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104445" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104445</a></pub-id>
  28. Hatem DS, Halpin T. Becoming doctors: examining student narratives to understand the process of professional identity formation within a learning community. J Med Educ Curric Dev 2019;6:2382120519834546. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120519834546" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1177/2382120519834546</a></pub-id>
  29. Fainstad T, Mann A, Suresh K, Shah P, Dieujuste N, Thurmon K, Jones CD. Effect of a novel online group-coaching program to reduce burnout in female resident physicians: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open 2022;5(5):e2210752. doi: <pub-id pub-id-type="doi"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.10752" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="text-signal-blue hover:underline">10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.10752</a></pub-id>
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/aiht-2025-76-3934 | Journal eISSN: 1848-6312 | Journal ISSN: 0004-1254
Language: English, Croatian, Slovenian
Page range: 113 - 118
Submitted on: Dec 1, 2024
Accepted on: May 1, 2025
Published on: Jun 30, 2025
Published by: Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 times per year

© 2025 Sunčana Vlah Tomičević, Valerija Bralić Lang, published by Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.