Do women residents delay childbearing due to perceived career threats?

Purpose: To assess gender differences among residents regarding their plans to have children during residency and determine the most influential reasons for these differences.

Method: Using the Health Belief Model as a framework, the authors created an instrument to survey 424 residents from 11 residency programs at three academic medical institutions about their intentions to have children during residency. The authors developed a scale to assess the perceived career threats of having children during residency, evaluated its psychometric properties, and calculated the effect of the mediators.