What mental health and wellbeing interventions work for which children and young people in care? Systematic review of potential outcome inequities

Evans, Rhiannon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0239-6331, Trubey, Rob, Macdonald, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-2347, Noyes, Jane, Robling, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1004-036X, Willis, Simone ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3949-7651, Boffey, Maria, Wooders, Charlotte and Melendez-Torres, G. J. 2024. What mental health and wellbeing interventions work for which children and young people in care? Systematic review of potential outcome inequities. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 10.1007/s10560-023-00956-7

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Abstract

Children and young people with care-experience (e.g. foster, kinship and residential care) report poorer mental health and wellbeing than the general population. Despite an emerging evidence-base for intervention, it is not clear if current approaches create, exacerbate or mitigate outcome inequities between different types of participants. We conducted a systematic review of international interventions targeting mental health, subjective wellbeing and suicide-related outcomes amongst care-experienced children and young people aged up to 25 years old. The review included a narrative synthesis of intervention inequities, exploring if they were more or less effective for different participant groups. Eight interventions, with 14 study reports, presented relevant data. Overall, there was no clear evidence that intervention participation could lead to inequitable impacts, being more or less effective for different groups. However, there was some tentative indication that individuals with lower exposure to maltreatment, fewer care placements, and increased baseline mental health problems, might be more responsive to intervention than other participants. There was limited evidence for wellbeing and no data availability for suicide. Future intervention evaluation should focus on assessing if there is potential to create, sustain or exacerbate inequities, and how approaches may be designed to mitigate this risk.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	0738-0151
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 January 2024
Date of Acceptance:	4 November 2023
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2024 17:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/165464

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