SynthesisBMJ mental health2023
Early parenting interventions to prevent internalising problems in children and adolescents: a global systematic review and network meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMJ mental health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- The efficacy of parenting interventions for forced migrant families on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms, parental self-efficacy, and parental competence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Transcultural psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Online Parenting Programs for Children's Behavioral and Emotional Problems: a Network Meta-Analysis.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2025Pooled it
- Who Benefits More in Group-Based and Individual Telehealth Parenting Programs: Moderators and Distal Child Outcomes among Military Families.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Trial
- Article
- Psychiatrists, public mental health and sustainability: understanding the overlap and taking action.BJPsych bulletin · 2025Review
- Designing a Cross-Cultural Bridging Intervention to Increase Under-Served Immigrant Parents' Engagement in Evidence-Based Online Parenting Programs: A Co-Design Study with Indian-Origin Parents in Australia.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between parental mental health and the duration of visual attention and facial expressions during at-home parent-infant interactions: a UK birth cohort study.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Using Wearable Digital Devices to Screen Children for Mental Health Conditions: Ethical Promises and Challenges.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Editorial: The role of parent-child interactions in developmental psychopathology: methodological and intervention challenges and opportunities.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 7 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
questionWe compared the effectiveness of different types of parenting interventions based on an a priori taxonomy, and the impact of waitlists versus treatment as usual (TAU), in reducing child internalising problems. STUDY SELECTION AND ANALYSIS: We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis of published and unpublished randomised controlled trials (RCTs) until 1 October 2022 that investigated parenting interventions with children younger than 4 years. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: studies with children born preterm, with intellectual disabilities, or families receiving support for current abuse, neglect, and substance misuse. We assessed the certainty of evidence using the Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis framework. We used random-effects network meta-analysis to estimate standardised mean differences (SMDs) with 95% credible intervals (CrIs).
findingsOf 20 520 citations identified, 59 RCTs (18 349 participants) were eligible for the network meta-analysis. Parenting interventions focusing on the dyadic relationship (SMD: -0.26, 95% CrI: -0.43 to -0.08) and those with mixed focus (-0.09, -0.17 to -0.02) were more effective in reducing internalising problems than TAU at the first time point available. All interventions were more effective than waitlist, which increased the risk of internalising problems compared with TAU (0.36, 0.19 to 0.52). All effects attenuated at later follow-ups. Most studies were rated as with 'high risk' or 'some concerns' using the Risk of Bias Assessment Tool V.2. There was no strong evidence of effect modification by theoretically informed components or modifiers.
conclusionsWe found preliminary evidence that relationship-focused and mixed parenting interventions were effective in reducing child internalising problems, and the waitlist comparator increased internalising problems with implications for waiting times between referral and support. Considering the high risk of bias of most studies included, the findings from this meta-analysis should be interpreted with caution.
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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.