Do Students’ Motivation Influence Interprofessional Competencies? The Mediating Role of Team Efficacy

Background: While academic motivation drives individual learning, its role in developing collaborative competencies in interprofessional education (IPE) remains underexplored—a critical gap given healthcare’s increasing reliance on interprofessional teams. Objective: Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined how academic motivation relates to interprofessional competencies (IPEC) development and whether team efficacy (TE) mediates this relationship. Method: Data were collected from a cohort of undergraduate students from three disciplines from two universities in Hong Kong at the end of their month-long participation on either of the two IPE modules (Fracture and Emerging Respiratory Infection). Participants’ academic motivation (knowledge and accomplishment), perception of their team’s efficacy, and competencies (values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, teamwork) were measured using standardized self-report scales. Results: Mediation analyses via PROCESS Macro Model 4 revealed distinct patterns for the two motivation dimensions. Both academic knowledge (AMK) and accomplishment motivation (AMA) directly predicted all four IPEC competency domains (b = 0.35–0.45, p < 0.001) and team efficacy (b = 0.15–0.20, p < 0.001–0.05). Team efficacy predicted all IPEC domains (b = 0.15–0.20, p < 0.05) and mediated the AMA-IPEC relationship across all four domains (indirect effects b = 0.06–0.07, 95% CIs excluding zero). However, perceived team efficacy mediated the AMK-IPEC relationship only for Roles and Responsibilities (b = 0.07, 95% CI [0.01, 0.16]). Accomplishment-motivated students thus develop interprofessional competencies through both team-mediated and individual pathways, while knowledge-motivated students rely primarily on direct learning. Conclusion: Given the importance of team efficacy and motivation in developing interprofessional competencies, IPE curricula must nurture both motivation types while recognizing their distinct pathways: structuring team tasks to leverage accomplishment motivation’s natural team engagement, while providing individual learning opportunities for knowledge-motivated students to minimize role ambiguity.