Medical Students Rate Black Female Peers as Less Socially Connected

Background

Social and cultural outcomes are critically important in medical education. A large medical school located in the United States implemented a learning community model intended to promote social and cultural growth among its medical students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which medical students from the same peer cohort were socially connected across racial and sex groups.

Methods

Because most assessments involving social and cultural outcomes involve self-reported data of a personal nature, the possibility of social desirability bias is increased. To mitigate this threat, this study utilized a novel method for measuring medical students social connectedness by having peers in one's advisory college provide social connectedness ratings about one another.

Results

While surface level results did not reveal any significant differences, a closer inspection of data revealed Black females were less socially connected with medical student peers from their cohort than other peer groups.

Discussion

Possible explanations for this are discussed. Future research should continue to investigate the experiences of Black females in medical schools so as to better understand the needs of this important and valuable subpopulation of students.