Introduction:

Self-directed learning is a student's skill that allows them to achieve greater academic performance through putting into practice their metacognitive, motivational and behavioral abilities focused on goals of acquisition of knowledge and skills.

Objective:

The association of the level of self-directed learning with sociodemographic and academic characteristics of medical students was determined.

Method:

A comparative cross-sectional survey was conducted in medical students through the application of the Self-Directed Learning Self-Assessment Scale and a structured questionnaire to collect sociodemographic and academic characteristics. Analyses were carried out with descriptive statistics, correlation, inferential and association tests.

Result:

Included in the study were 247 medical students aged 21.3 ± 1.9 years, 147 (51.4%) were female. The self-directed learning score was moderate in 116 (47.0%) students and those who had an average above 9 achieved a score of 120.1 ± 12.4 compared to 114.5 ± 12.5 of those with a school average of 8.00 to 8.99 and 110.7 ± 12.1 with those from 7.00 to 7.99 (p <0.001), r = 0.230. Average below 7, obtained OR 2.3, 95% CI (1.01 - 5.27) for low self-directed learning competence. There was no difference between academic grades (p > 0.05).

Conclusions:

Medical students present medium or semi-structured development of self-directed learning that was associated with academic status and school average but not with sociodemographic characteristics or academic degree.