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Overview

The purpose of Clinical Child, Adolescent, Family, and Pediatric Psychology (CCAFP) concentration at GSAPP is to promote the advancement of, and formalize the competencies for, graduate training in clinical child and adolescent psychology and pediatric psychology. Extant definitions of CCAFP include education and training for research and practice that brings together the basic tenets of professional and health service psychology with a thorough background in applied clinical sciences and practices focusing on children (defined as those under the age of 18 for the purpose of this concentration) and families.

Clinical child and pediatric psychologists conduct scientific research and provide psychological services to infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents, and their families. The research and practices conducted by clinical child and pediatric psychologists focus on understanding, preventing, diagnosing, and treating psychological, cognitive, emotional, social, behavioral, and family problems of children in a variety of settings, including inpatient and outpatient clinics, children's hospitals, schools, mental health centers, and other entities in the community. Of particular importance is a scientific understanding of the basic psychological needs of children and adolescents and how their influential social contexts, such as parents, peers, and teachers, influence socio-emotional adjustment, cognitive development, behavioral adaptation, and health status of children and adolescents. Training also includes inter-professional functioning with a range of mental health and health care professionals, including physicians, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, dieticians, speech therapy and audiologists, among others. This CCAFP concentration recognizes a critical need for better documentation and further improvements of evidence-based assessments and treatments for the children, adolescents, and families served. Thus, a major emphasis of the formal training and practice will be guided by the most up-to-date empirical research base.

For greater information on the specialty of clinical child and adolescent psychology, and its place in the spectrum of psychological specialties, please go to: http://cospp.org/specialties/clinical-child-psychology

I. CCAFP Faculty Sponsors

  1. Brian Chu, Ph.D.
  2. Erum Nadeem, Ph.D.

II. Competencies
The CCAFP concentration aims to ensure that all CCAFP students have been exposed to, and have developed competencies appropriate for entry-level professionals in the following domains:

  1. Human Development
  2. Child and Adolescent Psychopathology/Developmental Psychopathology
  3. Child and Adolescent Assessment
  4. Youth-focused Intervention Approaches
  5. Multiple Systems Influences on Youth Development and Functioning
  6. Individual, Familial and Community Diversity
  7. Research relevant to child and adolescent populations, development, and developmental psychopathology.

III. Summary of Requirements
Requirements for the CCAFP concentration differ for School and Clinical students and are:

  1. Successful completion (defined as obtaining grade of B or better) of at least six (6) courses that focus on clinical child and adolescent or pediatric psychology as described in the Concentration Handbook.
  2. Satisfactory completion of required practicum experiences (defined as meeting all expectations for the professional competencies defined by the Clinical or School Program). Distinct requirements for clinical and school students are described in the Concentration Handbook.
  3. Successful completion of a doctoral dissertation (defined as successfully defending dissertation) that focuses on issues relevant to, or includes as samples of, child and adolescent populations as described in the Concentration Handbook.

IV. CCAFP Concentration Handbook (Detailed Requirements)

V. Requirements Checklist Form