Some social characteristics and background of firstyear dental students, University of Sydney, 1976-85 Shanti Sivaneswaran* P. D. Barnardt

Key words: Dental students: background, social characteristics, ten-year study.

Abstract This paper presents some information, derived by questionnaire, on the social characteristics and background of 1148 first-year dental students at the University of Sydney for the years 1976-1985. Student entry age was 19.4 years; 27 per cent were female; 36 per cent of fathers and 24 per cent of mothers were professionals and 37 per cent of fathers and 11 per cent of mothers had attended university; parents of female students had higher educational levels than parents of male students; 55 per cent had medicine as the course of first preference. Eighty-five per cent of students entered dentistry from high school with 78 per cent from Sydney. Characteristics of students showed little change over the period 1976-1985. Some changes noted were an increase in the number of female students with fewer living in their parents' home; increase in number of students from government schools; decrease in foreign students but an increase in students (Australian citizens, or residents) born overseas, and of different ethnic backgrounds. (Received forpublicationJuly 1990. RevisedAugust 1991. Accepted August 1991.)

*lecturer, Department of Preventive Dentistry, The University of Sydney ?Associate Professor, Department of Preventive Dentistry, The University of Sydney. 370

Introduction Little attention has been paid in the literature to the Australian dental student. Some reports which have been published include aspects of background education,' social ~haracteristics,~~~ and social and educational ba~kground.~ The opportunity for dental education is limited to a very small segment of the community. Certain social characteristics and backgrounds seem to be related to the selection of dentistry by high school students.' It is particularly important to those engaged in the education and training of dental students, and those planning for dental services, that identifying and descriptive factors about the dental student such as age, sex, pre-dental education, and education and occupation of their parents are known. A questionnaire survey was carried out from 1976 to 1985 in an attempt to determine, or at least gain some insight into, the social characteristics and background of first-year dental students of the University of Sydney. This paper also identifies some groups in the community who provide successful applicants to the Faculty of Dentistry, and to the dental profession of the future. Method A questionnaire was distributed and collected at the first Dental Science I lecture in the first week that students attended the University. The questionnaire was simple, with provision for the student to circle or tick category responses. Data requested included: age, sex, present student residence, student's place of secondary education, student occupation prior to the dental course, home residence of the student, parental occupation, and parental educational levels attained. Australian Dental Journal 1992;37(5):37&85.

Oh Females

30 -.

20 -

"

Sydney 195%60 Australia 1964

Sydney 1976 Year

Sydney 1985

Fig. 1. -Change in female enrolments: percentage of female first year dental students.

Table 1. Sample number and mean age of dental students by sex and year Male

Year 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1976-80 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1981-85

Total

Female

Total

Female (70)

N

Age (years)

N

Age (years)

N

Age (years)

98 86 93 78 95 450 97 82 77 69 64 389 839

19.7 19.4 19.3 19.6 19.3 19.5 19.9 19.4 19.2 19.6 19.3 19.5 19.5

22 26 38 36 27 149 35 29 29 29 38 160 309

19.0 19.6 18.7 19.4 19.2 19.2 19.8 18.7 18.8 19.2 19.5 19.2 19.2

120 112 131 114 122 599 132 111 106 98 102 549 1148

19.6 19.5 19.1 19.5 19.3 19.4 19.8 19.2 19.1 19.5 19.3 19.4 19.4

The returns were summarized by hand, and chisquare and Student's c tests were used to test the statistical validity (p

Some social characteristics and background of first-year dental students, University of Sydney, 1976-85.

This paper presents some information, derived by questionnaire, on the social characteristics and background of 1148 first-year dental students at the...
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