Attitudes about research among Allied Medical Students enrolled in speech and hearing undergraduate program

OBJECTIVE: To investigate students’ attitudes toward research during their pre-professional training. METHODS: The study collected survey data from 31 undergraduate students enrolled in speech and hearing undergraduate program at the College of Applied Medical Sciences at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data were collected at the beginning of a research methodology course over two consecutive terms. The study used a 32-item questionnaire listed in the Likert scale, and it measured students’ perspectives about research across five sub-scales: usefulness of research, research anxiety, research difficulty, life relevancy of research, and attitude toward research. RESULTS: The findings showed that students favorably perceived research with average factor ratings ranging from 4.10 to 5.54 out of 7. Also, the study found that the usefulness of research, life relevancy of research, and attitude toward research were correlated highly. CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that students’ favorable attitudes toward research may be due, in part, to perceiving research as relevant and useful to their lives and careers.