Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39910778›Full record

SynthesisJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2025

Research Review: Mechanisms of change and between-family differences in parenting interventions for children with ADHD - an individual participant data meta-analysis.

Constantina Psyllou, Marjolein Luman, Barbara J van den Hoofdakker, Saskia Van der Oord, Asma Aghebati, Bianca Boyer, Jan Buitelaar, Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, David Daley, Tycho J Dekkers and 26 more

Abstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing 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

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
  3. 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

36 authors.

Constantina PsyllouAccare Child Study Center, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Marjolein LumanDepartment of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology Section, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Barbara J van den HoofdakkerAccare Child Study Center, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Saskia Van der OordClinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.ORCID 0000-0003-2771-0187
Asma AghebatiSchool of Behavioural Sciences and Mental Health, Tehran Institute of Psychiatry, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Bianca BoyerDevelopmental & Educational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Jan BuitelaarDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Andrea Chronis-TuscanoDepartment of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
David DaleyNTU Psychology, School of Social Science, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
Tycho J DekkersAccare Child Study Center, Groningen, The Netherlands.
George J DuPaulDepartment of Education and Human Services, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
Gregory A FabianoDepartment of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
Maite FerrinDepartment of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Barnet Enfield and Haringey NHS Trust, London, UK.
Nike FrankeLiggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Naama Gershy TsahorSchool of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Elizabeth HarveyDepartment of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
Timo HennigDepartment of Inclusive Education, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Sharonne HerbertDepartment of Advocacy and Public Policy, Children's Hospital of Orange County, Orange, CA, USA.
Pieter J HoekstraAccare Child Study Center, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Lee KernDepartment of Education and Human Services, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.
Jennifer A MautoneDepartment of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Amori Yee MikamiDepartment of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Sébastien NormandDépartement de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau, QC, Canada.
Linda J PfiffnerDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Shizuka ShimabukuroHuman Developmental Neurobiology Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
Satyam Antonio SchrammDepartment of Inclusive Education, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.
Julie B SchweitzerDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences and the MIND Institute, University of California, Davis, Sacramento, CA, USA.
Margaret H SibleyDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA.
Edmund Sonuga-BarkeDepartment of Child Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Catherine ThompsonInstitute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Margaret J ThompsonDepartment of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Gail TrippHuman Developmental Neurobiology Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan.
Carolyn Webster-StrattonDepartment of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA.
Yuhuan XieSpecialty Mental Health Program of Asian Health Service, Oakland, California, USA.
Patty LeijtenResearch Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Annabeth P GroenmanDepartment of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-8394-6605

Funding

ZonMw 06360312110001
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundUnderstanding the mechanisms of change and between-family differences in behavioural parenting interventions for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may help personalise interventions. Therefore, we examined whether improvements in parenting are associated with changes in child behaviour and functional outcomes, and how these associations vary based on parents' baseline parenting levels.

methodsWe collected individual participant data including 19 randomised controlled trials focusing on children with ADHD (n = 1,720). Immediate post-intervention measures of child ADHD and oppositional behaviour severity, reported by parents and functional impairment reported by either the parent or probably masked clinicians, were treated as outcomes. We estimated pathways from intervention (vs. control) to child outcomes, via immediate post-intervention parent reports of constructive parenting (e.g. praise), non-constructive parenting (e.g. physical punishment) and parent-child affection (e.g. warmth), while controlling for baseline values of both child outcomes and parenting levels. Baseline values of each parenting variable were used as moderators of the mediated pathways.

resultsImprovements in parenting behaviours and parent-child affection immediately following the intervention jointly explained concurrent improvements in children's ADHD severity, oppositional behaviour and functional impairment. Furthermore, when reversing the direction of the pathways, improvements in all child outcomes jointly explained improvements in each aspect of parenting. Improvements in non-constructive parenting and parent-child affection uniquely accounted for intervention effects on functional impairment, especially for families with higher baseline levels of non-constructive parenting.

conclusionsOur findings might indicate that improvements in both the behavioural and affective aspects of parenting are associated with concurrent reductions in child behaviour problems and functional impairment. However, more research is necessary to explore the potential causal directionality between parenting and child outcomes. Nonetheless, supporting families with poorer parenting skills may be especially important, as reductions in non-constructive parenting in these families are linked to stronger treatment effects on child functional impairment.

Indexed as

Attention Deficit Disorder with HyperactivityBehavior TherapyOutcome Assessment, Health CareParent-Child RelationsParentingChildHumansADHDmeta‐analysisparentingParent trainingstructural equation modelling

Identifiers

PMID39910778
PMCPMC12350818

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.