A Model of Determinants Influencing the Development of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Self-efficacy for Discussing Substance Use with Patients

Child and adolescent psychiatrists are well situated to have meaningful conversations with a population at high risk of substance use: youth receiving psychiatric care. However, there has been a dearth of research about behavioral determinants that may influence psychiatrists’ willingness to engage in these discussions. This study proposes a model of determinants to help identify influences on psychiatrists’ levels of self-efficacy, which theoretically should predict their discussions about substance use. A national survey of child and adolescent psychiatrists was conducted to gather data to test this model, which predicted that training, past experiences with substance use discussions, and communication apprehension would influence self-efficacy. Results showed that the model was an excellent fit to the data, accounting for 49% of the variance in self-efficacy. We discuss how these findings could inform future training initiatives for child and adolescent psychiatrists.