Educating Pediatric Residents About Parenting: A Survey of Residency Program Leaders

The American Academic of Pediatrics guides pediatricians to counsel parents about how to promote their children’s cognitive, emotional, and self-regulatory development, but the extent to which pediatricians receive the training needed to do so is unknown. An online survey was distributed to members of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors. Although most respondents agreed that it was “very important” to educate residents about parenting skills, only 11% rated their program as doing so “very well.” The most frequently reported reason for not doing very well was lack of a curriculum. Residents currently learn about parenting most commonly in continuity clinic talks, are educated via lectures, and are taught most frequently by clinic preceptors. Nearly half of the respondents reported that their residents relied on self-learning about parenting behaviors. When asked which topics respondents would like covered by an evidence-based parenting curriculum, the most commonly endorsed topic was positive discipline.