Universal interventions to improve young children's mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

IF 19.9 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY

Psychological bulletin Pub Date : 2026-04-01 DOI:10.1037/bul0000522

Jiying Ling,Sisi Chen,Nancy T Browne,Melissa G Gomes

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This meta-analytic review quantified the effects of universal interventions, those implemented with all children, on improving mental well-being in young children aged 0-6 years old. Potential factors that moderated the effects of interventions were explored. A systematic search of PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (Elton B. Stephens Company), APA PsycInfo (ProQuest), and grey literature identified 21,942 records. After screening, 134 articles reporting 133 studies and 141 interventions among 32,512 participants met eligibility criteria. Meta-analyses were conducted, using random-effects models and cluster-robust variance estimation to account for within-study dependence and to compute pooled Hedges' g. Mean effects at postintervention were small-to-medium on overall mental well-being (g = 0.35) across cognitive (g = 0.35), social (g = 0.36), emotional (g = 0.38), and behavioral (g = 0.31) domains. Sensitivity analyses (e.g., excluding high-risk and low-reliability studies) produced similar results. Follow-up effects adjusted for baseline were 0.22, and the maintenance of effects from postintervention to follow-up was only 0.04. Exploratory moderator analyses revealed three significant moderators, including study design, control group, and intervention target. Child-focused interventions yielded the largest effects, exceeding those targeting family and child, the occupational role (e.g., teachers), or family member only. Though these results support some promises of universal interventions for enhancing early mental well-being, interpretation warrants caution. Between-study heterogeneity was substantial, some studies exhibited a high risk of bias, and publication bias was present. Future research should prioritize rigorous designs with follow-up assessments and booster strategies to support maintenance and include implementation-relevant outcomes (e.g., fidelity), while adhering to transparent reporting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

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改善幼儿心理健康的普遍干预措施：系统回顾和荟萃分析。

本荟萃分析综述量化了对所有儿童实施的普遍干预措施对改善0-6岁幼儿心理健康的影响。探讨了调节干预效果的潜在因素。对PubMed、护理和相关健康文献累积索引（Elton B. Stephens Company）、APA PsycInfo （ProQuest）和灰色文献进行系统搜索，确定了21,942条记录。筛选后，在32512名参与者中，134篇报道133项研究和141项干预措施的文章符合资格标准。使用随机效应模型和聚类稳健方差估计进行了荟萃分析，以解释研究内依赖性并计算汇总对冲系数g。干预后对认知（g = 0.35）、社会（g = 0.36）、情绪（g = 0.38）和行为（g = 0.31）领域的整体心理健康（g = 0.35）的平均影响为中小型。敏感性分析（例如，排除高风险和低可靠性研究）得出了类似的结果。基线调整后的随访效果为0.22，干预后至随访的效果维持率仅为0.04。探索性调节分析揭示了三个显著的调节因素，包括研究设计、对照组和干预目标。以儿童为中心的干预产生了最大的影响，超过了那些针对家庭和儿童、职业角色（如教师）或仅针对家庭成员的干预。尽管这些结果支持一些普遍干预提高早期心理健康的承诺，但解释需要谨慎。研究间异质性很大，一些研究显示出高偏倚风险，存在发表偏倚。未来的研究应优先考虑严格的设计，包括后续评估和辅助策略，以支持维护，并包括实施相关的结果（例如，保真度），同时坚持透明的报告。（PsycInfo数据库记录(c) 2026 APA，版权所有）。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychological bulletin 医学-心理学

CiteScore

33.60

自引率

0.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Psychological Bulletin publishes syntheses of research in scientific psychology. Research syntheses seek to summarize past research by drawing overall conclusions from many separate investigations that address related or identical hypotheses. A research synthesis typically presents the authors' assessments: -of the state of knowledge concerning the relations of interest; -of critical assessments of the strengths and weaknesses in past research; -of important issues that research has left unresolved, thereby directing future research so it can yield a maximum amount of new information.