Background: There is consensus about the importance of psychoanalytically informed parent interventions in the success of a child’s and adolescent’s treatment. However, the form that parent interventions may take seems to be less clear.
Aims and methods: The current literature review aimed to examine the evidence for the effectiveness of psychoanalytically informed parent interventions with parents of children aged 1-18.
Findings: Thirty-two studies were included. Nineteen studies (four systematic reviews and fourteen experimental studies) evaluated parent interventions with parents of children under the age of five. Four studies (one systematic review, one empirical study and two observational studies without a control group) examined the effectiveness of interventions with parents of primary school-aged children. Six observational studies without control groups examined the effectiveness of interventions with parents of adolescents. Finally, three quasi-experimental studies reported the effectiveness of interventions with parents of children aged 1-18. Most studies focusing on parents of older children reported pre-post-intervention outcomes and did not include child-reported outcomes.
Conclusion: The evidence for interventions with parents of primary school-aged children and adolescents is underdeveloped compared with the evidence for interventions with parents of children under the age of five. Higher quality research is needed to support the evidence base for interventions with parents of primary school-aged children and adolescents.