Professional Identity in Speech-Language Pathology Students

Purpose: Professional identity (PI) serves to aid preprofessionals by contributing to a sense of purpose as students pursue their academic requirements. The importance of PI has been explored across other allied health fields including nursing, social work, and medicine. However, this topic has not been thoroughly investigated in communication sciences and disorders (CSD), and there is limited information on perceptions of PI among CSD students. Method: The current study is a secondary analysis of existing data. An adapted version of the PI Five-Factor Scale was administered via an anonymous online survey. Student participants self-reported perceptions of PI and perceived program support. Differences on the factors were tested using t tests and analysis of variance to explore differences between groups. Results: Significant differences were found between monolingual and multilingual students, with monolingual English-speaking students reporting higher perceptions of PI. There were no significant differences in PI between genders, racial groups, or first-generation students versus students of parents with varying educational backgrounds. Participant responses skewed toward a positive PI. Similar results were found for participants' perceptions of program support for PI across the five factors. Conclusions: PI has been extensively explored in allied health fields, but the topic has not been explored in speech-language pathology. Study findings can be used to help better serve students, particularly those from underrepresented groups. These data can support the recruitment and retention of culturally and linguistically diverse students with goals to increase the diversity of the pipeline of future professionals.