Abstract

This study aims to reveal the potential structural differentiation mechanism within the medical education system and to provide empirical evidence for promoting the cultivation of general practitioners and educational equity. It adopted a cross-sectional,quantitative method. Specifically, linear and logistic regression were initially used to identify the associations among medical graduates’ SES, medical humanities literacy, academic performance, and their GP career choice. Then the Process Macro was adopted to examine the mediating effects of academic performance and medical humanities literacy. The results showed that SES has a significant negative impact on medical students’ career choice of medical students as GPs. However, neither academic performance nor medical humanities literacy of medical students plays a mediating role between SES and GP career choice. This study implied that the educational process, including both professional and medical humanities education, cannot offset the dominant effect of SES in the occupational differentiation process of medical students. Hence it is recommended that medical education be improved to contribute to GP development and promote the SDG goal of “health for all”.