title: Junior Investigators Thinking About Quitting Research: A Survey.
abstract: Junior tenure-track faculty report high levels of stress and low satisfaction; the increasingly competitive funding environment compounds this discontent. We examined factors associated with junior investigators who were thinking about quitting research.
  
  
  
  Data were collected as part of a program evaluation of an interdisciplinary research mentoring program in an academic medical center.
  
  
  
  Of the 62 mentees, 44 responded to the survey (71%). When asked "In the past year, have you considered quitting research?" 39 mentees answered the question; 17 (44%) answered in the affirmative. Those who had considered quitting had lower scores on the Clinical Research Appraisal Inventory-12 (CRAI-12) and job satisfaction and higher scores on burnout. In a regression model, we found that only CRAI-12 scores were significantly, inversely associated with thinking about quitting.
  
  
  
  Factors associated with thinking about quitting included lower confidence in research skills, reduced job satisfaction, and higher levels of burnout.
authors.affiliation: Mary Ellen Stoykov, PhD, MS, OTR/L, is Assistant Professor, Rush University, Chicago, IL; mary_stoykov@rush.edu.
authors.forename: Mary Ellen
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Stoykov
authors.affiliation: Kimberly A. Skarupski, PhD, MPH, is Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology); and Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Skarupski
authors.affiliation: Kharma Foucher, MD, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, University of Illinois at Chicago.
authors.forename: Kharma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Foucher
authors.affiliation: Susan Chubinskaya, PhD, is Associate Provost of Faculty Affairs, Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Pediatrics, Rush University, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chubinskaya