Factors Affecting Recruitment Into Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training

Abstract

The authors studied the factors affecting the recruitment into child and adolescent psychiatry training in the United States. Medical students (n=154) and general and child and adolescent psychiatry residents (n=111) completed a questionnaire to evaluate career choice in child psychiatry (n=265). Compared with medical students, general and child and adolescent psychiatry residents were more likely socially related; extroverted; empathic; warm; tolerant of ambiguity; interested in quality of life, social systems, and a developmental perspective; and to espouse greater satisfaction working with psychiatric patients, but less interested in sports or outdoor activities. Seventy-eight percent of medical students considered psychiatry as a potential career, and 28% indicated a strong interest in psychiatry. Sixty-four percent of general psychiatry residents considered child psychiatry as a career. Reasons precluding child psychiatry were preference for working with adults (33%), the clinical child rotation (19%), years of training (13%), and indebtedness (3%). More effort is needed to address the barriers to selecting child psychiatry as a career among medical students and general psychiatry residents.