Who wants to go to occupational therapy school? Characteristics of Norwegian occupational therapy students.

BACKGROUND

Research on occupational therapy students has often been concerned with quite narrow topics. However, the basic characteristics of this group are yet to be examined in more depth.

METHODS

This study aimed to explore the sociodemographic, education-related, and work-related characteristics of occupational therapy students. A sample of 160 occupational therapy students in Norway participated. Differences between cohorts of students were examined with one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) for continuous variables and with chi-square tests for categorical variables.

RESULTS

The sample had a mean age of 24 years and was predominantly female (79%). More than one -third of the students had one or both parents in an occupation requiring health education, whereas two-thirds of the students had one or both parents in an occupation requiring higher education. At entry, 57% of the participants had occupational therapy as their preferred choice of education and 43% had previous higher education experience. The few significant differences between the study cohorts were negligible.

CONCLUSION

In the education programmes, specific attention may be considered for students with characteristics associated with increased risk of poorer study performance or other problems. This may concern male students and students with no previous higher education experience.