An eye for implementation

Every day, pediatric psychologists are faced with such questions as how to apply the best new pediatric research in practice and how to implement successful health promotion programs in community clinics. To help guide them, APA's Div. 54 (Society of Pediatric Psychology) has launched Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology (CPPP), a journal that will complement the division's more research-focused Journal of Pediatric Psychology (JPP). CPPP debuts in March.

"Many professionals are looking for information regarding the professional and applied activities of pediatric psychology," says new co-editor Jennifer Shroff Pendley, PhD, of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del. "They want information on how to implement interventions in pediatric clinical settings, on the best models to provide the care our research colleagues have shown to be effective."

Pendley's co-editor is W. Douglas Tynan, PhD, also of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington.

CPPP will focus on applied topics such as developing programs, providing cost-effective treatment and overcoming barriers to care. To make the new journal as appealing to researchers as it is to clinicians, Pendley and Tynan have asked JPP's incoming editor Grayson N. Holmbeck, PhD, to serve as an advisory editor for CPPP, hoping to address pediatric topics from applied and research standpoints.

"We hope that CPPP will complement the scientific development of the field, highlighted in articles included in JPP," says Pendley. "Research informs how we practice, and then the actual implementation should inform the research. It should be full circle."

Pendley and Tynan plan to offer a similar balance as co-editors. The two have worked together at Nemours for more than 10 years, with Pendley serving as co-director of the hospital's Division of Behavioral Health and Tynan heading up the hospital's community-based prevention arm, Nemours Health and Prevention Services. They have different areas of expertise — Pendley focuses on medical adherence issues and helping children adapt to chronic illness, while Tynan works in children's health promotion and studies how early childhood behavior problems affect children's health.

"We thought that as we venture into a new journal, it would be fun and efficient to work together and use each other's expertise," says Tynan.

The new editors say they also hope the journal attracts pediatricians and other primary-care physician readers. "We also see it appealing to academics who are training the next generation of psychologists," adds Tynan. "We are becoming more and more integrated with health professionals, and that is critical for student training."

Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology is accepting submissions.