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Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Sep 25;27(1):e301218.
doi: 10.1136/bmjment-2024-301218.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions to improve outcomes for parents or carers of children with anxiety and/or depression

Anthony Tsang  1 , Dania Dahmash  2 , Gretchen Bjornstad  3   4 , Nikki Rutter  5 , Aleem Nisar  6 , Francesca Horne  7 , Faith Martin  8
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions to improve outcomes for parents or carers of children with anxiety and/or depression

Anthony Tsang et al. BMJ Ment Health. .

Abstract

Question: Depression and anxiety are common among children and young people and can impact on the well-being of their parents/carers. Dominant intervention approaches include parent training; however, this approach does not directly address parents' well-being. Our objective was to examine the effect of interventions, with at least a component to directly address the parents' own well-being, on parents' well-being outcomes, including stress, depression and anxiety.

Study selection and analysis: A systematic search was performed in the following: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, PsycINFO, Scopus, CENTRAL, Web of Science Core Collection (six citation indexes) and WHO ICTRP from inception to 30 December 2023. Interventions that aimed to support parents/carers managing the impact of their child's/young person's mental health were eligible. EPHPP (Effective Public Health Practice Project) was used to quality appraise the included studies. A meta-analysis of relevant outcomes was conducted.

Findings: Fifteen studies were eligible comprising 812 parents/carers. Global methodological quality varied. Seven outcomes (anxiety, depression, stress, burden, self-efficacy, quality of life and knowledge of mood disorders) were synthesised at post-intervention. A small reduction in parental/carer anxiety favouring intervention was indicated in one of the analyses (g=-0.26, 95% CI -0.44 to -0.09, p=0.02), when excluding an influential case. Three outcomes were synthesised at follow-up, none of which were statistically significant.

Conclusions: Interventions directly addressing the well-being for parents of children with anxiety and/or depression appear not to be effective overall. Clearer conceptualisation of factors linked to parental distress is required to create more targeted interventions.

Prospero registration number: CRD42022344453.

Keywords: Adult psychiatry; Anxiety disorders; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Depression.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 flow diagram of searches. CYP, child and young people.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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