Are efforts to recruit to psychiatry closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? Knowledge and attitudes towards a career in psychiatry amongst secondary (high) school students: a UK-based cross-sectional survey

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographics and A level subjects studied by the respondents (n = 186).

Gender	Male	Female	Other (gender diverse)
n (%)	81 (43.54)	103 (55.37)	2 (1.07)
Age	16 years	17 years	18 years	19 years
n (%)	77 (41.39)	99 (53.22)	9 (4.83)	1 (0.53)
Subjects studied	Biology	Chemistry	Psychology
n (%)	123 (66.12)	101 (54.30)	61 (32.79)

Figure 1. Distribution of the estimates of the average salary of a UK consultant psychiatrist, as reported by the sample of secondary school students.

Figure 2. Two factor model of attitudes towards psychiatry with standardised factor loadings, factor correlations, error variance and residuals. Note, correlated residuals [not all shown] are included to account for the “method effect” of negatviely worded items.

Table 2. Results from a regression analysis predicting the factor scores from the attitudinal questionnaire from the demographic and educational characteristics of the respondents.

Predictor	Beta coefficient (95% confidence intervals)	p-Value
Factor 1 (generally negative attitude toward psychiatry)
Male vs Female	0.11 (0.03 to 0.19)	0.01
Age in years	−0.01 (−0.09 to 0.07)	0.79
Chemistry	0.08 (−0.01 to 0.16)	0.09
Psychology	−0.11 (−0.21 to −0.01)	0.01
Biology	0.07 (−0.03 to 0.17)	0.11
Factor 2 (attitude towards treatment effectiveness in psychiatry)
Male vs Female	−0.09 (−0.21 to 0.03)	0.14
Age in years	−0.01 (−0.11 to 0.09)	0.89
Chemistry	−0.15 (−0.27 to −0.03)	0.02
Psychology	0.23 (0.11 to 0.35)	0.001
Biology	−0.09 (−0.23 to 0.05)	0.19

Table 3. Results from a regression analysis predicting the total knowledge scores from the demographic and educational characteristics of the respondents, as well as their attitudinal factor scores.

	Beta coefficient (95% confidence intervals)	p-Value
Male vs female	−0.47 (−1.33 to 0.39)	0.29
Age in years	−0.30 (−1.01 to 0.41)	0.41
Chemistry	0.74 (−0.10 to 1.58)	0.09
Psychology	−0.15 (−1.05 to 0.75)	0.74
Biology	0.43 (−0.47 to 1.33)	0.35
Factor 1 (Negative general attitudes towards psychiatry)	−1.54 (−3.03 to −0.05)	0.05
Factor 2 (Positive attitudes towards effectiveness of treatments)	0.85 (−0.21 to 1.91)	0.12