Parental Involvement in Adolescent Psychological Interventions: A Meta-analysis

Area of Science:

• Clinical Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Family Therapy

Background:

• Psychological interventions for adolescents show variable effectiveness.
• Parental involvement in youth treatment is a potential factor for improving outcomes.
• Existing meta-analyses lack specificity regarding parents' role in adolescent-focused interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and meta-analyze the impact of parental involvement in psychological interventions for adolescents.
• To compare interventions including parents versus those targeting adolescents alone across various disorders.
• To examine symptom type (internalizing vs. externalizing) as a moderator of treatment effects.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
• Searches included keywords: (parent OR family) AND (intervention OR therapy OR treatment OR prevent) AND (adolescent).
• Inclusion criteria: RCTs comparing individual psychological intervention with/without parental component in adolescents with current symptoms or risk.

Main Results:

• Twenty trials (N=1251) were included in the meta-analysis.
• Interventions with parental involvement showed a significantly greater impact on adolescent psychopathology (g = -0.18, p < .01).
• This effect was significant for externalizing problems (g = -0.20, p = .01) but not internalizing problems (p = .11).

Conclusions:

• Parental involvement in psychological interventions enhances treatment outcomes for adolescents.
• The benefit of including parents is particularly pronounced for externalizing psychopathology.
• Findings underscore the importance of family-centered approaches in adolescent mental health treatment.