Preparedness of Doctoral Clinical Psychology Program Faculty to Integrate Topics of Human Sexuality into Academic Training.

摘要

Sexuality is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. Despite the intersection between psychological and sexual wellbeing, the majority of doctoral clinical psychology programs do not require, nor offer, courses in human sexuality. Whereas past research has widely focused on graduate student competency, little research has surveyed faculty competency in topics of human sexuality. This study measured the extent to which educators of graduate students are knowledgeable in topics of sexuality, and how comfortable they feel integrating sexual topics into their courses. This study surveyed 52 licensed clinical psychologists who teach in accredited doctoral programs nationwide. Participants were surveyed utilizing a previously developed competency questionnaire to measure knowledge, and a newly created measure to examine levels of comfort discussing sexuality with students. Participants demonstrated greater knowledge of sexual dysfunction than of healthy sexual development. Additionally, participants reported higher levels of comfort when asked to discuss sexuality in general, but reported relatively lower levels of comfort when asked to discuss certain specific sexually related topics with students.