Media-based behavioural treatments for behavioural problems in children

Many approaches are used to address behavioural problems in childhood including medication or, more usually, psychological treatments either directly with the child and/or his/her family. Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural interventions have been shown to be highly effective but access to these treatments is limited due to factors such as time and expense. Presenting the information parents need in order to manage these behaviour problems in booklet or other media-based format would most likely reduce the cost and increase access to these interventions.

To review the effects of media-based cognitive-behavioural therapies for any young person with a behavioural disorder (diagnosed using a recognised instrument) compared to standard care and no-treatment controls.

The following electronic databases were systematically searched: CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library Issue 3, 2005), MEDLINE (1966 to August 2005), EMBASE (1980 to August 2005), PsycINFO (1887 to August 2005), CINAHL (1982 to August 2005), Biosis (1985 to August 2005) and Sociofile (1974 to August 2005). References in all selected trials were checked for other trials and experts in the field were contacted for additional information.

Randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials (e.g. trials which used sequential randomisation) of media-based behavioural treatments for behaviour problems in children.

Abstracts and titles of studies identified from searches of electronic databases were read to determine whether they met the inclusion criteria. Full copies of those possibly meeting these criteria from electronic or other searches were assessed by the reviewers and queries were resolved by discussion. Data were analysed using RevMan 4.2.

Eleven studies including 943 participants were included within this review. In general, media-based therapies for behavioural disorders in children had a moderate, if variable, effect when compared with both no-treatment controls with effects sizes ranging from -0.12 (-1.65, 1.41) to -32.60 (-49.93, -15.27) and as and adjunct to medication with effect sizes ranging from -2.71 (-5.86, -0.44) to -39.55 (-75.01, -4.09). Significant improvements were made with the addition of up to two hours of therapist time.

These formats of delivering behavioural interventions for carers of children are worth considering in clinical practice. Media-based interventions may, in some cases, be enough to make clinically significant changes in a child's behaviour, and may reduce the amount of time primary care workers have to devote to each case. They can also be used as the first stage of a stepped care approach. Consequently this would increase the number of families who could possibly benefit from these types of intervention, releasing clinician time that can be reallocated to more complex cases. Media-based therapies would therefore appear to have both clinical and economic implications as regards the treatment of children with behavioural problems.