Early and Final Preferences for Pediatrics as a Specialty: A Study of U.S. Medical School Graduates in 1983.

The early and final specialty preferences for pediatrics made by 10,321 U.S. medical school graduates in 1983 were obtained from the students' responses to the Premedical Student Questionnaire, which accompanied their Medical College Admissions Test, and to the Medical Student Graduation Questionnaire, filled out not long before they graduated from medical school. A total of 11.5% of the women and 5.9% of the men expressed a preference for pediatrics on the earlier questionnaire, when they were premedical students; 13.5% of the women and 4.8% of the men actually chose pediatrics when they were senior medical students, as reflected on the later questionnaire. On both questionnaires, 31.3% of the women's preferences and 14.6% of the men's preferences for pediatrics did not change. More than 70% of all the graduating students choosing pediatrics had expressed a premedical preference for a primary care specialty. Fiftyone percent of the women and 42% of the men who abandoned their early preferences for pediatrics chose another specialty within primary care. More students of both genders shifted from a premedical preference for family practice into pediatrics than kept their early preference for pediatrics. If the direction of change noted in this study and others continues, pediatrics will increasingly become a specialty chosen by women. Acad. Med. 64(1989)600–605.