Factors affecting recruitment into child and adolescent psychiatry training

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.