Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153:693-697
Copyright © 1996 by American Psychiatric Association
Exploration of failure on the subspecialty examination for child and adolescent psychiatry
T Shapiro, D Juul and SC Scheiber
Committee on Certification in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Inc., Deerfield, IL 60015, USA.
OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to compare first-time
performance on the oral examination for certification in child and
adolescent psychiatry with first-time performance on the written and oral
examinations for certification in general psychiatry and to identify
factors that contribute to failure on the child and adolescent psychiatry
oral examination. METHOD: To address the first question, two successive
cohorts of first-time child and adolescent psychiatry candidates were
identified, and chi-square analyses were used to explore the relationship
between first-time performance on the different examinations. For the
second question, a special checklist was developed and completed for all
candidates who failed any section of the oral examination for child and
adolescent psychiatry three successive times. RESULTS: There was no
relationship between passing or failing the written and oral examinations
for general psychiatry on the first attempt and passing or failing the
child and adolescent psychiatry oral examination on the first attempt. The
checklist results suggested that the failing candidates had difficulty in
organizing and integrating case material. Other weaknesses were related to
the specific sections of the oral examination. CONCLUSIONS: The results
suggest that the knowledge and skills that are required to pass the child
and adolescent psychiatry oral examination are different from those of the
general psychiatry examination. The information about weaknesses should be
of interest to general and child and adolescent psychiatric educators,
candidates, and service delivery agencies.
