Tobacco Training in Clinical Psychology Graduate Programs

The leading cause of preventable death for persons with mental health illnesses, as well as those who live in poverty, is cigarette smoking. These marginalized groups are some of the key groups that clinical psychologists are trained to work with to improve the quality of their lives. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the extent of tobacco cessation training offered in the clinical psychology programs that would prepare clinical psychologists for helping patients who want to quit smoking. A valid and reliable 21-item questionnaire was sent to the population of 203 doctoral clinical psychology programs using a three-wave mailing process to assess tobacco cessation training. Clinical psychology directors returned 110 completed questionnaires for a response rate of 55.5%. The majority (80%) of the programs reported having never thought about offering formal smoking cessation training in their curricula. Only 17 programs (15.4%) currently provided formal smoking cessation education. The three leading barriers to offering smoking cessation education were not enough time (58.2%), not a priority (48.2%), and no interest by students (30.9%). These findings indicate that clinical psychology students are not receiving standardized smoking cessation education to assist in improving the well-being of their patients. This study provides evidence in support of smoking cessation education being incorporated into the existing curriculum guidelines for clinical psychology programs.