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

Tsang, Anthony, Dahmash, Dania, Bjornstad, Gretchen, Rutter, Nikki, Nisar, Aleem, Horne, Francesca and Martin, Faith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0141-1210 2024. A systematic review and meta-analysis of interventions to improve outcomes for parents or carers of children with anxiety and/or depression. BMJ Mental Health 27 (1) , e301218. 10.1136/bmjment-2024-301218

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Publisher:	BMJ
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 September 2024
Date of Acceptance:	21 August 2024
Last Modified:	27 Sep 2024 09:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/172287

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