Supporting parents to reduce children's anxiety: A meta-analysis of interventions and their theoretical components

IF 4.2 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

Behaviour Research and Therapy Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.brat.2025.104692

Karen Rienks , Elske Salemink , Liina Björg Laas Sigurðardóttir , G.J. Melendez-Torres , Janneke P.C. Staaks , Patty Leijten

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Parent-focused interventions hold promise for reducing child anxiety, but their content varies greatly, and little is known on the intervention content. We estimated the effects of parent-focused interventions on child anxiety and the most effective combinations of theoretical components.

We searched PsycINFO, Medline, and Web of Science in October 2022 for randomized trials on parent-focused interventions to reduce children's anxiety. We used robust variance estimation to estimate main effects and differential effects by individual theoretical components, and network meta-analysis to estimate the effects of clusters of components (preregistration: PROSPERO CRD42022362983).

We identified 26 studies (k = 157, N = 4098). Parent-focused interventions had a significant medium effect on children's anxiety (d = −0.59; 95% CI [−0.92, −0.26]). Interventions used seven theoretically distinct components. No significant differential effects were found, but all clusters of components that produced significant effects contained a behavioral component. Adding cognitive and emotional components to behavioral components seemed beneficial.

This meta-analysis highlights the potential of parent-focused interventions for children's anxiety, and of behavioral components in particular, but is limited by the very low certainty of evidence. More high-quality research is needed to understand the exact potential of parent-focused interventions on children's anxiety, and their most effective components.

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来源期刊

Behaviour Research and Therapy PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

7.30%

发文量

148

期刊介绍： The major focus of Behaviour Research and Therapy is an experimental psychopathology approach to understanding emotional and behavioral disorders and their prevention and treatment, using cognitive, behavioral, and psychophysiological (including neural) methods and models. This includes laboratory-based experimental studies with healthy, at risk and subclinical individuals that inform clinical application as well as studies with clinically severe samples. The following types of submissions are encouraged: theoretical reviews of mechanisms that contribute to psychopathology and that offer new treatment targets; tests of novel, mechanistically focused psychological interventions, especially ones that include theory-driven or experimentally-derived predictors, moderators and mediators; and innovations in dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices into clinical practice in psychology and associated fields, especially those that target underlying mechanisms or focus on novel approaches to treatment delivery. In addition to traditional psychological disorders, the scope of the journal includes behavioural medicine (e.g., chronic pain). The journal will not consider manuscripts dealing primarily with measurement, psychometric analyses, and personality assessment.