Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39541081›Full record

SynthesisClinical child and family psychology review2025

Multi-Informant Universal Mental Health Screening for Preschool-Aged Children by Parents and Educators: A PRISMA Systematic Review.

R K McLean, L A Tully, S K Brinley, T Carl, A Turnell, J C Northam, M R Dadds

Abstract readSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Clinical child and family psychology review, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

R K McLeanSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-2691-8499
L A TullySchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-2066-7609
S K BrinleySchool of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-8251-685X
T CarlSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-4744-5536
A TurnellSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0009-0005-7952-5313
J C NorthamSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4471-8116
M R DaddsSchool of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. mark.dadds@sydney.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0002-2900-1715

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Children develop rapidly in the preschool period, making accurate appraisals of mental health (MH) difficult. The preschool years are a key period for early identification of MH concerns and could benefit from multi-informant, universal MH screening (UMHS). This systematic review aimed to identify multi-informant UMHS measures for preschool-aged children, and to examine their clinical utility, effectiveness, and acceptability. Studies reporting the predictive and incremental validity, effectiveness or acceptability of parent and educator-report UMHS measures for children aged 3-5 years were identified through CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science. Studies were excluded if screening was not the primary focus, not universal, single informant, or primarily focussed on Autism Spectrum Disorder. A total of 11 studies using 10 measures was identified. Ten studies screened for broad MH difficulties. Three educator-report and one parent- and educator-report measures had acceptable predictive validity. One study reporting incremental validity found that adding educator-report to parent ratings significantly improved the identification of MH concerns. No studies reported on effectiveness. Three studies that explored acceptability reported strong support for either UMHS in general or specific measures. There are promising results that UMHS can accurately identify child MH concerns in the preschool period using parent and educator reports. However, with few of the examined measures reaching the benchmark standards for predictive validity and only one study examining incremental validity, further research is needed to establish clinical utility. UMHS with preschool populations appears to be acceptable; future studies should further examine multi-informant screening in preschool populations. This systematic review was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero ; registration number: CRD 42022383426).

Indexed as

Mass ScreeningMental DisordersParentsSchool TeachersChild, PreschoolHumansChild mental healthEarly learningEducatorMulti-informantParentPreschoolSocio-emotional and behavioural wellbeingTeacherUniversal mental health screeningUniversal screening

Identifiers

PMID39541081
PMCPMC11885398

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.