Training in Pediatric Psychology--Current Perspectives and Future Opportunities: Introduction to the Special Section

Abstract

The most personally and professionally gratifying of my activities in the field of pediatric psychology has involved training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellows (Drotar, 2003). I continue to be impressed by the intellectual curiosity, values, and compassion, and raw talent that are demonstrated by the remarkable cadre of graduate and fellowship level trainees who are attracted to pediatric psychology. The future of our field will be theirs. To ensure their and our future, we need to be the best possible stewards of the extraordinary promise of these careers in the making by creating the most optimal training opportunities, experiences, and career paths for our future practitioners, teachers, and researchers. This special issue on training in pediatric psychology was conceived to address this continuing need. Training in pediatric psychology has evolved in important ways since the founding of our field (LaGreca, Stone, Drotar, & Maddux, 1988; Roberts et al., 1998; Spirito et al., 2003). The Society of Pediatric Psychology Task Force Report (2003): Recommendations for the Training of Pediatric Psychologists considered issues related to breadth and depth of training, scope of practice, training paths, primary care, interdisciplinary training, and mentors (Spirito et al., 2003). Topic areas identified as most important for obtaining knowledge and expertise in pediatric psychology included life span development, developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, child, adolescent, and family assessment, intervention strategies, research methods and systems, evaluation, professional ethical and legal issues, diversity, roles of multiple disciplines in service delivery, prevention, family support, and health promotion, social issues affecting children, adolescents, and families, consultant and liaison roles, and disease process and medical management. This report was an important milestone in the development of training in our field as it expanded on the prior survey results and recommendations for pediatric psychology (LaGreca et al., 1988) and clinical child psychology. Since the Task Force report (Spirito et al., 2003), training programs that focus on pediatric psychology or offer pediatric training as part of another program at graduate, internship, and postdoctoral levels have expanded significantly. However, training programs in pediatric psychology face a number of significant challenges: Recruiting graduate students and facilitating development of their core competencies in both specialized training and an increasing breadth of content areas, training students to meet the challenges of research careers, and promoting the development of mentors in our field. The manuscripts in this special section respond to these challenges of pediatric psychology training.