Our Mission

The Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP) Future Directions Forum showcases new frontiers in children's mental health, recognizes promising young scientists doing work in this field, and provides professional development to all who attend the forum.

About the Future Directions Forum

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The field of child and adolescent mental health leverages knowledge from multiple disciplines to understand, assess, prevent, and treat child and adolescent mental health concerns. This field thrives when its constituent disciplines—Psychology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Public Health, Public Policy, Social Work, Education, Nursing, and Neuroscience, among others—build bridges to work with one another. However, these bridges do not build themselves. As a leading journal in the field, the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP) has the ability to build these bridges.

Held annually in June in Washington, DC, the Forum is the premier, gala science event specifically designed to meet the needs of early career scientists. The goals of the Forum are three-fold: (a) showcase interdisciplinary work in child and adolescent mental health, (b) provide professional development training to early career scientists, and (c) raise public awareness of the “best and brightest” of these scientists-in-training.

Professional Development Training

The Forum provides attendees with professional development training that consists of live, interactive workshops on such topics as scientific writing style and productivity, peer review, and preparing training grant applications. ​

Showcasing Future Directions

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Leaders in the field who recently published Future Directions articles at JCCAP give formal addresses on the next steps of scientific research in their area of expertise. Following each Future Directions Address, breakout discussions serve as brainstorming sessions for new science that builds on research covered by the addresses. Faculty with expertise in the areas covered by the Future Directions Addresses lead these breakout discussions, which allow scientists-in-training to develop specific research aims and concrete strategies for conducting new research in these areas of study. This format sparks lively discussions among faculty and scientists-in-training about new science linked to the Future Directions Addresses. 
At our breakout discussions, attendees make the future of science happen!

Digital Poster Presentations

At the Forum, scientists-in-training make poster presentations of their research during primetime social events using an innovative, all-digital format. Here is how:

​In advance of the Forum, prospective presenters submit abstracts of their work using our online submission system, like at most other conferences. Then things get interesting. Among those whose posters are accepted for presentation, our team prompts presenters via email to upload a single-slide PowerPoint file of their presentation. At the Forum, we integrate these files into our own digital system to present on the "big screen" during our poster session socials. At the Forum, all poster presentations are digitally presented, saving presenters both time and money. Equally important, these poster session socials provide early career scientists with networking opportunities with faculty involved in Forum activities!