Table 1.
Characteristics of Harvard Medical School alumni sample, and comparisons of three sub-groups according to the extent of their research involvement (n=358)
| Characteristics | overall (n=358) | not involved (n=106) | involved in a limited way; somewhat involved (n=117) | significant involved; exclusively (n=125) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | column % | column % | column % | column % | P | |
| Current age, years, mean (SD) | 338 | 44 (2.8) | 43 (2.4) | 44 (3.1) | 44 (2.8) | .58 |
| Sex | <.001 | |||||
| Male | 200 | 57 | 42 | 61 | 68 | |
| Female | 148 | 43 | 58 | 39 | 32 | |
| URiM status | .001 | |||||
| non-URiM | 285 | 83 | 75 | 80 | 93 | |
| URiM | 58 | 17 | 25 | 20 | 7 | |
| Amount of medical school debt: | <.001 | |||||
| no debt | 91 | 26 | 16 | 30 | 31 | |
| $1-$49,999 | 61 | 18 | 10 | 17 | 24 | |
| ≥$50000 | 195 | 56 | 74 | 53 | 44 | |
| Type of work that characterizes current position: | <.001 | |||||
| Non-academic medicine | 157 | 46 | 88 | 37 | 19 | |
| Academic medicine | 182 | 54 | 12 | 63 | 81 | |
| Attitude index; −10 to 10, median (IQR) | 356 | 4.1 (3.3-5.1) | 3.8 (2.8-4.6) | 4.0 (3.2-4.6) | 4.6 (3.7-5.9) | <.001 |
| Stereotypthreat; 1 to 5, median (IQR) | 354 | 2.0 (1.5-3.0) | 2.0 (1.0-3.0) | 2.0 (1.5-3.0) | 2.0 (2.0-3.0) | .55 |
| Social norms index | <.001 | |||||
| weak | 113 | 32 | 50 | 31 | 17 | |
| moderate | 103 | 29 | 24 | 35 | 28 | |
| high | 107 | 30 | 10 | 27 | 49 | |
| unknown | 35 | 10 | 16 | 7 | 6 | |
| Mentor encouraged research as career | <.001 | |||||
| no mentor | 99 | 28 | 38 | 33 | 17 | |
| strongly /somewhat disagree/neither agree nor disagree | 101 | 29 | 44 | 30 | 15 | |
| strongly/somewhat agree | 150 | 43 | 18 | 37 | 68 | |
| Listed as an author on published scientific paper in med school? | <.001 | |||||
| never/once or twice | 188 | 54 | 71 | 54 | 41 | |
| yes, several | 159 | 46 | 29 | 46 | 59 | |
| Felt performance was judged more closely than others | .26 | |||||
| strongly /somewhat disagree/neither agree nor disagree | 302 | 85 | 90 | 87 | 82 | |
| strongly/somewhat agree | 52 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 18 | |
| Satisfied with the progress in your career? | .02 | |||||
| very satisfied/somewhat satisfied | 316 | 91 | 86 | 89 | 96 | |
| somewhat unsatisfied/very unsatisfied | 33 | 9 | 14 | 11 | 4 | |
| How close is what you are doing now compared to what you anticipated you would be doing at the end of medical school? | .64 | |||||
| Almost identical to what I anticipated doing/Generally similar to what I anticipated doing | 232 | 67 | 68 | 63 | 69 | |
| Generally dissimilar to what I anticipated doing/Not at all what I anticipated doing | 116 | 33 | 32 | 37 | 31 | |
| Looking back, if you could choose your career path again, would you make change in the decisions you made? | .048 | |||||
| Make no changes at all | 194 | 56 | 51 | 55 | 61 | |
| Alter several of the decisions I made | 128 | 37 | 36 | 41 | 33 | |
| Make major changes in the path I took | 26 | 7 | 13 | 3 | 6 | |