Survey of Non-APA-Accredited Internships and Their Interns

We obtained information about the characteristics of internship programs not accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and of their interns. Surveys were completed by directors of 74% of the programs and 51% of the interns in these programs. The most prominent reason why these programs did not seek accreditation was financial, though several of these programs had been in existence for several years, and 65% of them indicated that they would eventually seek accreditation. More than half of the interns in these programs were from APA-accredited graduate programs; their choice of internship was closely related to the location of the site. Interns did rate APA accreditation as important in ideal site selection, although four factors were rated even more important. Over 350 interns train in nonaccredited programs, which suggests their importance in the development of professional psychologists. Efforts being made by the Association of Psychology Internship Centers (APIC) to apply minimum criteria to these programs seem well warranted.