Table 2.

Item Topical Domains and Descriptive Statistics

Topical Domain	Item	Mean	Standard Deviation
Importance	Family physicians provide only a small fraction of all health care delivered in the United States.*	4.09	0.88
Relationships	To give good care, it is important to consider each patient in the context of his or her family.	4.36	0.72
	Knowledge of family interactions is important in treating individual patients.	4.22	0.66
Competence and expertise	Family medicine requires knowledge that a subspecialist practice may not.	4.18	0.83
	Family physicians’ work is complex and interesting.	3.46	1.12
Research	Research-oriented students should probably not consider family medicine careers.*	3.38	1.01
	Research to improve health happens very often in primary care settings.	3.53	0.86
Lifestyle	Family medicine provides a physician with enough income to live well.	3.80	0.97
	Family physicians enjoy their work.	3.78	0.72
Shortage	The US health care system can only work well with family physicians playing an integral part.	4.28	0.75

^*Reverse-coded items