| Abstract: | Physicians and other health professionals are an important part of the national scientific and technical workforce, and it is important to understand the factors that attract (or fail to attract) young adults into these fields. Using data from the 20-year record of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) and working within a social learning paradigm, this analysis uses a set of variables to predict employment in medicine or other health professions for a national sample of young adults aged 36 to 39. The LSAY is one of the longest longitudinal studies of the impact of secondary education and postsecondary education conducted in the United States. A structural equation model found that early home and parental factors provided substantial encouragement toward a career in medicine or health but that the net impact of these early advantages was slightly less for medicine and health than for other STEMM professions. Early school success and early algebra and calculus enrollment were important factors in eventual entrance into medicine or other health professions, but more as gatekeepers than as programmatic factors. Although twice as many young women earned premedical or prehealth professional degrees than young men, twice as many young men eventually entered medicine or another health profession as young women. |
