Understanding Facilitators and Barriers to the Selection of Dietetics as a major by African American students

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dc.contributor.authorFelton, Teena M.en
dc.contributor.committeechairHosig, Kathryn W.en
dc.contributor.committeecochairNickols-Richardson, Sharon M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberSerrano, Elena L.en
dc.contributor.departmentHuman Nutrition, Foods, and Exerciseen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:36:11Zen
dc.date.adate2007-05-17en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:36:11Zen
dc.date.issued2007-05-07en
dc.date.rdate2007-05-17en
dc.date.sdate2007-05-15en
dc.description.abstractLess than 5% of registered dietitians are African-American individuals. Little has been done to investigate reasons for the paucity of African-American professionals in the dietetics field. The specific aim of this study was, therefore, to explore facilitators and barriers to the selection of dietetics as a major by African-American students. Individual elicitation interviews and focus group discussions with African-American students currently enrolled as dietetics and non-dietetics majors at Virginia Tech were conducted. It was hypothesized that African-American students who chose to major in dietetics did so primarily for altruistic reasons, whereas African-American students who did not major in dietetics did so, in part, because of a lack of awareness of the major. Forty African-American students (mean ± SD age = 21.4 ± 1.4 years) participated in individual elicitation interviews and focus group discussions. Hypotheses were supported. In addition, personal interest was indicated by both dietetics and non-dietetics students as a factor in selection of major. Non-dietetics students believed that barriers to the selection of dietetics as a major included poor advertising and poor recruitment efforts. Directors of didactic programs in dietetics may need to create more visible recruitment and retention programs to increase the number of African-American students majoring in dietetics.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-05152007-165730en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05152007-165730/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/42664en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartTFELTON.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectqualitative studyen
dc.subjectdietetics studentsen
dc.subjectcollegeen
dc.subjectAfrican-Americansen
dc.titleUnderstanding Facilitators and Barriers to the Selection of Dietetics as a major by African American studentsen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineHuman Nutrition, Foods, and Exerciseen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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