Table 2.
Medical Student Responses to Questions About Parental Leave According to Sex of Respondent
| Item | Female n (%) (n = 113) | Male n (%) (n = 63) | Total n (%) (n = 176c) | P value |
Effect Size |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do you expect parental leave policies will be formally presented at residency interviews? | .20a | |||||
| Definitely not | 2 (1.8) | 2 (3.2) | 4 (2.3) | |||
| Probably not | 22 (19.5) | 18 (28.6) | 40 (22.7) | |||
| Might or might not | 34 (30.1) | 14 (22.2) | 48 (27.3) | |||
| Probably yes | 28 (24.8) | 19 (30.2) | 47 (26.7) | |||
| Definitely yes | 27 (23.9) | 10 (15.9) | 37 (21.0) | |||
| Would you appreciate if information related to parental leave was formally presented at residency interviews? | .004 b | .25 | ||||
| Don’t care | 2 (1.8) | 9 (14.3) | 11 (6.2) | |||
| No | 3 (2.7) | 1 (1.6) | 4 (2.3) | |||
| Yes | 108 (95.6) | 53 (84.1) | 161 (91.5) | |||
| During interviews, do you anticipate you would be comfortable asking the PD about the parental leave policy? | < .001a | -.39 | ||||
| Extremely uncomfortable | 30 (26.5) | 5 (7.9) | 35 (19.9) | |||
| Somewhat uncomfortable | 60 (53.1) | 24 (38.1) | 84 (47.7) | |||
| Neither comfortable nor uncomfortable | 7 (6.2) | 15 (23.8) | 22 (12.5) | |||
| Somewhat comfortable | 14 (12.4) | 14 (22.2) | 28 (15.9) | |||
| Extremely comfortable | 2 (1.8) | 5 (7.9) | 7 (4.0) | |||
| Why do you anticipate you would be uncomfortable? Select all that apply | ||||||
| Awkward topic | 14 (12.4) | 5 (7.9) | 19 (10.8) | |||
| Power imbalance (candidate asking PD or other physician) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | |||
| I am worried it will lessen my chance of acceptance | 78 (69.0) | 27 (42.9) | 105 (59.7) | |||
| Don’t want to talk about leave at an interview | 52 (46.0) | 19 (30.2) | 71 (40.3) | |||
| Other | 2 (1.8) | 2 (3.2) | 4 (2.3) | |||
| When evaluating residency programs, do you anticipate parental leave policy will impact your ranking of programs? (N = 172) | .003 b | .29 | ||||
| Not at all | 16 (14.7) | 25 (39.7) | 41 (23.8) | |||
| Somewhat | 52 (47.7) | 23 (36.5) | 75 (43.6) | |||
| Very much | 22 (20.2) | 7 (11.1) | 29 (16.9) | |||
| Unsure | 19 (17.4) | 8 (12.7) | 27 (15.7) | |||
| Given 2 equivalent programs, would a difference in parental leave policy impact your decision on ranking? (N = 173) | .002 b | .29 | ||||
| Not at all | 5 (4.5) | 12 (19.0) | 17 (9.8) | |||
| Somewhat | 40 (36.4) | 29 (46.0) | 69 (39.9) | |||
| Very much | 51 (46.4) | 15 (23.8) | 66 (38.2) | |||
| Unsure | 14 (12.7) | 7 (11.1) | 21 (12.1) | |||
| How would you like to receive information about parental leave during the residency application? Select all that apply | ||||||
| During the formal presentation about the program at the time of the interview | 90 (79.6) | 43 (68.3) | 133 (75.6) | |||
| Handouts distributed to me at the time of the interview | 69 (61.1) | 32 (50.8) | 101 (57.4) | |||
| Training program’s website (available to applicants) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | |||
| Personal unofficial conversations with current residents | 46 (40.7) | 23 (36.5) | 69 (39.2) | |||
| Were parental leave policies formally discussed or presented during residency interviews? (N = 32) | .42 b | |||||
| Never | 4 (26.7) | 4 (44.4) | 8 (33.3) | |||
| Sometimes | 9 (60.0) | 5 (55.6) | 14 (58.3) | |||
| Always | 2 (13.3) | 0 (0.0) | 2 (8.3) | |||
| Were parental leave policies informally discussed during residency interviews? (N = 32) | .31 b | |||||
| Never | 2 (13.3) | 3 (33.3) | 5 (20.8) | |||
| Sometimes | 11 (73.3) | 6 (66.7) | 17 (70.8) | |||
| Always | 2 (13.3) | 0 (0.0) | 2 (8.3) | |||
a Cochran-Armitage trend test for ordinal variables. Associated effect size is Cliff’s Delta
b Pearson χ2 test. Associated effect size is Cramer’s V
c Smaller sample sizes (because of no response or smaller survey group) are indicated for specific items