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The charts presented here summarize the results of the Division 39 Practice Survey. This material was presented at the 2010 Spring Meeting to the Division's Board and again in an open roundtable discussion. This data constitutes the bulk of the survey findings, edited for clarity of understanding and ease of interpretation. In what follows, I will summarize the key findings and implications in narrative form.
The survey was designed to obtain data on the current realities of the Division membership's independent practices and their attitudes toward practice. With much discussion of the threats to practice, the supposed low morale of practitioners, and questions about the profession's future, we felt it was important to know in detail what our members' practices actually look like as well as relevant attitudes.
The survey was distributed online to 2,919 Division members in the fall of 2008. After excluding surveys that were “bounced back” without reaching a member and those that were opened by members but not submitted, we obtained 603 usable surveys. The response rate of 22.8% compares very favorably to response rates reported in the literature and exceeded the response rates of several other web-based surveys recently conducted by the APA Practice Directorate. The survey covered four major areas-demographics, practice patterns, practice finances, and attitudes toward practice and practice development. The results are presented in that sequence. Data analysis was done in conjunction with the APA Practice Directorate, which has been extremely helpful and supportive of this effort.
As you will see, our sample roughly corresponds to the demographics of the Division's membership. With an average age hovering around 60, our Division's membership is some 10 years older than the APA membership at large (chart 1). Our sample, like the Division membership, also skews female-approximately 60% (chart 2). Our sample had a high degree of section mem