The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy in mental health problems of children and adolescents in child protection system: A meta-analysis

Evidence on the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based interventions for mental health problems of children and adolescents in institutional/foster care has been presented in various studies. However, the literature does not contain a meta-analysis study that examines and synthesizes the results together. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of CBT in the mental health problems of children and adolescents in foster and institutional care. In the literature review, we included eight studies that met the inclusion criteria in the analysis. The results showed CBT had a strong effect (g = −1.08) on improving the mental health problems of children and adolescents in institutional/foster care. The results also showed that CBT interventions were more effective in depression (g = −1.70) than anxiety (g = −0.87) in children and adolescents in institutional/foster care. Additionally, the results indicated that CBT-based interventions were more effective in groups consisting solely of children (g = −4.06) than in groups comprising children and adolescents (g = −1.70). Thus, this study’s results suggest promising findings for CBT-based interventions, indicating a need for more research in this sample.