Background Psychosocial issues are an integral part of children's health and well-being, and it is widely acknowledged that pediatricians should be involved in their management. We examined the current perception of the pediatrician’s role in the management of psychosocial problems in Israel from the perspective of parents and pediatricians, and identified possible barriers. Methods We assessed parents' and pediatricians' perspectives through a cross sectional survey. 1000 parents with children under 10 were randomly selected from a large database representing the Israeli population and phone-surveyed by a polling company. Due to a low response-rate (5.4%), there was an overrepresentation of married parents and underrepresentation of parents with primary or secondary education. 173 Pediatricians were recruited both at a medical conference and by a web-based questionnaire. Results 55% of the parents reported they were concerned with at least one psychosocial problem, yet less than 50% of them discussed these issues with the pediatrician. 59.9% of the parents did not perceive psychosocial problems as relevant to the pediatrician's role. Pediatricians with some previous training related to psychosocial issues were more likely to report on a lack of professional confidence (p = .037) and insufficient available resources (p = .022) as barriers to their involvement, while pediatricians who had no training were more likely to report on the parents' perception of their role as the barrier to involvement (p = .035). Conclusions Parents tend to avoid the discussion of psychosocial concerns in pediatric settings due to their perception that it's irrelevant to the pediatrician's role. Trained pediatricians feel unconfident in their ability to manage psychosocial issues and report on a lack of suitable resources. These findings suggest current pediatric mental-health training is insufficient to equip pediatricians with the knowledge and skills required to their involvement in psychosocial problems, and imply necessary changes to environment of community-based pediatrics. In order to change the practice of pediatricians in the community to enable them to address a variety of psychological issues, appropriate training is needed, through all stages of the pediatrician’s professional life, including medical school, pediatric residency and continuous medical education.

Background There are ongoing changes around the world in the training and practice of pediatricians who work in the community. These changes are driven by the understanding that pediatricians are required to provide not only acute primary care but also to address more comprehensive concerns, particularly the ‘new morbidities’. The present study examines the professional identity of Israeli pediatricians in the community in light of these changes, the barriers and challenges to their work and professional adaptations in the field. Methods We used a mixed-methods approach, collecting the perspectives of 137 pediatricians who work in the community through an anonymous online survey, followed by in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 community pediatricians. Results The survey results show that community pediatricians in Israel have limited knowledge on a variety of developmental, behavioral and emotional issues; that they lack working relationships with medical or other professionals; and are rarely engaged with other community services. Three main themes arose from the interviews that support and deepen the survey results: perceptions of the profession (pediatrics in the community vs. community pediatrics), the stature of pediatricians in the community (during residency, the choice to work in the community, their daily work) and barriers and change in community pediatrics (isolation, limited resources and challenges arising from the nature of community work). Conclusions The present study sheds light on the professional identity and the day-to-day challenges and successes of pediatricians working in the community. Continuing medical education, providing a supportive framework and professional community, better resources, more time with patients, and tools and opportunities for professional development would help pediatricians who work in the community to overcome some of these challenges. The research findings reinforce the need for policy change in the field of community pediatrics with a specific community training curriculum, provision of more resources and ongoing support for pediatricians. This requires partnership between the HMOs, the Ministry of Health, the Scientific Council (Israel Medical Association, professional organizations) and NGOs in order to turn individual-level solutions into system-level and policy-changing solutions.