The Role and Impact of Gender and Age on Children's Preferences for Pediatricians

Objective.—To determine the physician gender preferences of children and the consequences of meeting/not meeting children's preferences, both in their liking and feeling comfortable in talking with the pediatrician.

Methods.—A convenience sample of 125 parent-child pairs completed surveys when coming for an outpatient visit to a university-sponsored, urban pediatric practice.

Results.—Both adolescents and preadolescents (especially females) as young as 9 years of age expressed a gender preference for their physician. Meeting those preferences significantly affected how much children both liked and felt comfortable in talking with their physician. In young teen females, gender-preferred physicians are synonymous with gender-congruent physicians; yet although their preference for gender-congruent physicians increased in early adolescence, data indicated that their preference was often not met for several years to come.

Conclusions.—Liking and comfort with the pediatrician are not only desirable, but may also influence the doctor-patient relationship and young people's ability to develop health communication skills that they need as adults. These results, if validated, could also lead to a rethinking of parental dominance in the role of physician selection.

KEY WORDS:  choice , gender preference , preference for physician