NEWS FROM APA’S CENTER FOR WORKFORCE STUDIES
Frequency of psychologists serving the working poor
YOUNG PSYCHOLOGISTS, MINORITY PSYCHOLOGISTS
ARE MORE LIKELY TO SERVE THE WORKING POOR
By Auntré Hamp, MEd, MPH, Karen Stamm, PhD, Luona Lin, MPP, and Peggy Christidis, PhD.
For more information, contact APA’s Center for Workforce Studies.
1APA. (2015). Survey of Psychology Health Service Providers [Unpublished special analysis]. Washington, DC: Author. Respondents were asked about the
frequency of providing services in a typical week: never, rarely, occasionally, frequently, or very frequently. Socioeconomic categories included the working poor,
homeless and unemployed. Missing values were excluded prior to the analysis.
2Racial/ethnic minority includes American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African-American, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
and other non-White racial/ethnic groups. White does not include Hispanics.
3Chi-square tests were conducted between the frequencies of serving the working poor and various characteristics of psychologists.
Statistically significant results at p <0.01 were found for race/ethnicity, age and degree type. B I
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■ More than half ( 53 percent) of young psychologists under age 35 served the working poor
frequently or very frequently, as opposed to only 27 percent of psychologists age 65 or older,
according to APA’s 2015 Survey of Psychology Health Service Providers.
1, 2, 3
■ 45 percent of racial/ethnic-minority psychologists frequently or very frequently served this
population; only 38 percent of non-Hispanic white psychologists did.
■ 44 percent of psychologists with PsyD degrees frequently or very frequently served the working
poor, more than those with EdD ( 41 percent) or PhD degrees ( 37 percent).
■ Similar percentages of female ( 38 percent) and male psychologists ( 40 percent) frequently or
very frequently served the working poor.
Less Than Frequently Frequently, Very Frequently
Source: American Psychological Association, 2015 Survey of Health Service Providers
62% Female 38%
60 Male
40
Gender
62 White
38
55 Minority
45
Ethnicity
47 Under 35
53
53
35-44
47
57
45-54
43
63
55-64
37
73
65+
27
Age
63 PhD
37
56 PsyD
44
59 EdD
41
Education