South African Journal of Psychology 1–16 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0081246315619510 sap.sagepub.com International education and training for clinical child and adolescent psychology Michael C Roberts, Rebecca M Kanine, Christina M Amaro, Spencer C Evans, Jennifer B Blossom and Andrea M Garcia Abstract Psychological problems in youth and adequate mental health service delivery to children, adolescents, and families are critical public health dilemmas around the world. Central to effectively addressing the mental health needs of youth and families is focusing attention on the evaluation and development of specialized training programs in clinical child and adolescent psychology. All countries to more or less degree face challenges, but lower-income countries have additional limitations (e.g., scarce resources for training, high demand for services, cultural barriers) to establishing clinical psychology programs and specialized services for children and adolescents. This article discusses the status of efforts in the United States to define clinical child and adolescent psychology and develop standard training recommendations for mental health providers who work with youth and families, international considerations for intervention implementation and training, and future directions in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology. Keywords Clinical child and adolescent psychology, education, future directions, international, South Africa, training Psychological issues in youth are a primary public health issue. Despite the significant mental health problems and needs for services for children, adolescents, and families, many continue to be underserved internationally. While especially true in low- and middle-income countries, these problems are also evident in countries with more resources (World Health Organization [WHO], 2010). This is a worldwide issue; however, recent statistics presented by the WHO indicate that Clinical Child Psychology Program, University of Kansas, USA Corresponding author: Michael C Roberts, Clinical Child Psychology Program, University of Kansas, Room 2015, Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. Email: mroberts@ku.edu 619510SAP 0 0 10.1177/0081246315619510South African Journal of PsychologyRoberts et al. research-article 2015 State of the Science by guest on December 11, 2015 sap.sagepub.com Downloaded from