Table 3 Nurturing: toward a higher quality future in child and adolescent psychiatry

3.1. Current state of qualitative methods in child and adolescent psychiatry

3.1.1. Advantages and opportunities

Zoom is free, recording is free, and now that transcribing is virtually free. It used to be that transcribing was a significant cost. And now with AI, it is good enough that it’s essentially free. So really the only cost is our time. If you try to do this with quantitative, with brain imaging, with genetics, it’s impossible. So, I'm hopeful for qualitative methods, especially in resource-limited settings

3.1.2. Disadvantages and limitations

I’ve gotten pushback from people saying this doesn’t count as a scientific study when what they really mean to say is, “I'm not familiar with qualitative methods. I'm not fit to review this paper.”

3.2. Advocating for qualitative methods in CAP

Winnicott said it first: there is no such thing as a baby. There are no children in a vacuum, devoid of parents, families, schools, communities. As child and adolescent psychiatrists, we are family and systems doctors. Qualitative methods are perfect for our way of thinking about the world