ReviewConflict and health2018
Mechanisms of change for interventions aimed at improving the wellbeing, mental health and resilience of children and adolescents affected by war and armed conflict: a systematic review of reviews.
Review in Conflict and health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Universal interventions to improve young children's mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- The World Health Organization's Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions: A Systematic Review on Current Evidence regarding Effectiveness and Implementation.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2025Pooled it
- The efficacy of psychological prevention, and health promotion interventions targeting psychological health, wellbeing or resilience among forced migrant children and youth: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health Outcomes in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Improving child mental health and learning outcomes and reducing stigma and discrimination in conflict setting: findings from a cluster randomized controlled trial of a classroom-based psychosocial intervention in rural primary schools in Afghanistan.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Trial
- What drives change in children receiving telephone-delivered Common Elements Treatment Approach (t-CETA)? A multiple n = 1 study with Syrian refugee children and adolescents in Lebanon.Child abuse & neglect · 2025Trial
- Psychological and psychosocial interventions for trauma-related psychological distress in adults living in ongoing conflict.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Leveraging the power of groups for forced migrant populations impacted by war and torture: Strengthening family and social resources among Syrian refugees in Jordan.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2026Article
- Child and caregiver mental health in conflict affected settings.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2026Article
- Psychological impact of armed conflict and forced displacement on children and adolescents.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Review
- Conflict exposure and mental health: a survey of adolescent girls and young women in Myanmar post the 2021 coup d'état.Conflict and health · 2025Article
- Does war moderate the association between mental wellbeing and its predictors among children? A multi-country cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Collective Violence, Strengths, and Perceived Posttraumatic Growth: A Scoping Review.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2025Article
- Assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder and well-being among Sudanese during the ongoing war: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Investigation of Perceived Stress During COVID-19 Pandemic Self-Isolation Periods.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Mental health provision for children affected by war and armed conflicts.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Navigating health challenges: the interplay between occupation-imposed movement restrictions, healthcare access, and community resilience.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Sustaining efforts to improve family well-being with parents with mental ill health and substance (mis)use.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The impact of mental health and psychosocial support programmes on children and young people's mental health in the context of humanitarian emergencies in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Training non-specialists in teaching recovery techniques (TRT) to help traumatised children in humanitarian settings: a qualitative analysis of experiences gained from 20 years of practice.International journal for equity in health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite increasing research and clinical interest in delivering psychosocial interventions for children affected by war, little research has been conducted on the underlying mechanisms of change associated with these interventions. This review aimed to identify these processes in order to inform existing interventions and highlight research gaps. A systematic review of reviews was conducted drawing from academic databases (PubMed, PILOTS, Cochrane Library for Systematic Reviews) and field resources (e.g. Médecins Sans Frontières and the Psychosocial Centre of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), with extracted data analysed using Thematic Content Analysis. Thirteen reviews of psychosocial or psychological interventions for children and adolescents (< 25 years old) affected by war, armed conflict or political violence were identified, covering over 30 countries worldwide. Qualitative analysis identified 16 mechanisms of change, one of which was an adverse mechanism. Themes included protection from harm, play, community and family capacity building, strengthening relationships with caregivers, improved emotional regulation, therapeutic rapport, trauma processing, and cognitive restructuring; with the adverse mechanism relating to the pathologising of normal reactions. However, only 4 mechanisms were supported by strong empirical evidence, with only moderate or poor quality evidence supporting the other mechanisms. The poor quality of supporting evidence limits what can be inferred from this review's findings, but serves to highlight clinically informed mechanisms of change for existing and widely used non-specialist interventions in the field, which urgently need rigorous scientific testing to inform their continued practice.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.