Why you should trust child psychologists more than the rest of us, according to the AP
Psychology is a tricky beast, especially when it comes to how we think about child abuse.
The AP’s latest survey of the profession found that the most trusted mental health professionals in the country are psychologists, but it’s not clear how well they’re doing.
The survey found that children’s psychologists are seen as more credible than the majority of adults in the profession, and that they were also more likely to have a doctorate.
A similar survey in 2015 found that adults who work with children were more likely than the general public to say they trusted them with child abuse issues.
Still, even those psychologists who work in a family setting are often reluctant to speak about their patients’ experiences with child predators.
The results of this survey also suggest that parents should be wary of using child psychologists to diagnose child sexual abuse, said Dr. Andrew M. Smith, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
“They’re the first people you’d consider as a reliable source of information,” Smith said.
The psychology profession, of course, has been in crisis since the sexual abuse scandal in the 1970s, when the National Institute of Mental Health was forced to admit that it had no way of knowing whether child abuse was being committed by its staff.
It’s been in a long-term state of crisis for many years now, with several powerful men and women resigning or stepping down in recent years, including former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
The sexual abuse crisis led to the formation of the National Coalition to Protect Children (NCPC), which now serves as the umbrella group for many of the nation’s child protection agencies.
While the organization’s work has largely focused on child sexual predators, its president, Patricia K. Nunn, said in a statement that child psychologists are in some ways a “critical voice” in the field because they can provide valuable insight into the children they work with.
“In order to prevent sexual abuse from happening again, we need to make sure that all professionals are aware of the importance of the professionals’ own experience with children and can take that experience into account when making decisions about how to respond to a child’s situation,” she said.
“It’s a very difficult place to work when you know that your best friend is being sexually abused.
That is a really sad situation to be in.”
The AP’s survey of adults’ perceptions of child psychologists found that parents, teachers, school staff, doctors, lawyers, and others who work closely with children had the highest levels of trust in psychologists.
“Parents trust psychologists more because of their experience with child sexual offenders, the results show,” Smith wrote.
“Psychologists who work primarily with children also have higher levels of confidence in their professional expertise and are perceived to be more credible.”
It’s also worth noting that the survey didn’t ask parents to rate their trust in child psychologists based on how credible they thought they were.
The question asked whether the psychologist was a reliable and unbiased source of child abuse information, and the results were split along ideological lines.
Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, who strongly disapprove of the practice of child sexual exploitation, agreed with the statement that psychologists were “the only reliable source” of child sex abuse information.
And the vast majority of Democrats, who support child sexual trafficking, agreed.
However, nearly one-third of Democrats disagreed with the assertion that psychologists are not reliable sources of information about child sexual abusers.
While the survey results show that parents and educators generally trust psychologists, they’re also not universally supportive.
A majority of Americans who believe that child abuse is a real problem say they’re “disappointed” that child sexual assaults aren’t more widely reported, while just 15 percent of Americans agree with the sentiment that child molestation is “more prevalent than it should be.”
“This survey provides an important perspective on how parents and teachers can better protect their children from abuse, while also educating them about the dangers of child maltreatment,” said Drs.
Stephanie F. O’Neil, a pediatrician at Northwestern University and one of the authors of the AP survey, in a news release.
“We can all be a little less judgmental and we can all take more responsibility for our own safety.”
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