Profiles of environmental sensitivity among nursing students on clinical placement and their structural associations...

To identify latent profiles of environmental sensitivity among nursing students on clinical placement and examine their structural associations with failure mindsets.

Environmental sensitivity shapes how individuals process stimuli, interacting with failure experiences during nursing clinical placements to influence professional adaptation. Grounded in the trait-stress model and Differential Susceptibility Theory, we hypothesised that distinct sensitivity profiles would differentially shape failure mindsets. However, heterogeneity within this trait and its links to failure cognition remain underexplored.

A cross-sectional survey design was employed.

Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was conducted using the College Students' Environmental Sensitivity Scale, with model fit evaluated using BIC, SABIC, and the Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT). Multivariate logistic regression identified factors influencing subgroup membership. Network stability was assessed via case-dropping subset bootstrapping (CS-coefficient). Network analysis formally compared the structural associations between environmental sensitivity dimensions and failure mindset components across subgroups using the Network Comparison Test (NCT) with 10,000 permutations.

Three distinct profiles emerged: Highly Sensitive-Reflective (12.89%), Balanced-Adaptive (65.78%), and Low Sensitive-Rational (21.33%). The Highly Sensitive-Reflective subgroup exhibited the highest negative failure mindset, whilst the Low Sensitive-Rational subgroup scored highest on positive failure mindset. Network analysis revealed that emotional reactivity served as the core node in the Highly Sensitive subgroup, with strong negative coupling between positive and negative failure mindsets. In the Low Sensitive subgroup, the two failure mindset components were structurally independent. Regression analysis identified professional entry motivation, occupational identity, self-efficacy, gender, educational level, and family income as significant predictors of subgroup membership.

Environmental sensitivity among nursing students on clinical placement is heterogeneous and meaningfully associated with a failure mindset. These findings suggest the potential utility of stratified, typology-based clinical placement management approaches that incorporate targeted support strategies to reduce the risk of negative failure cognitions and promote professional sustainability.