Evidence base review of couple‐ and family‐based psychosocial interventions to promote infant and early childhood mental health, 2010–2019

• Published in: Journal of marital and family therapy Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 23 - 55
• Main Authors: Kaminski, Jennifer W., Robinson, Lara R., Hutchins, Helena J., Newsome, Kimberly B., Barry, Caroline M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Mothers; Adoption; Attachment Behavior; Babies; Behavior; Behavior Disorders; Behavior Problems; Brain; Brand names; Caregivers; Child & adolescent mental health; Child Abuse; Child Rearing; Child Welfare; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Children & youth; couple interventions; Developmental Disabilities; Domiciliary visits; Early childhood education; Effect Size; Emotions; Evidence; Families & family life; Family (Sociological Unit); family interventions; Foster Care; Grade Repetition; Humans; Infant; infant and early childhood mental health; Infants; Integrated Services; Interpersonal Relationship; Intervention; Maternal and infant welfare; Mental Health; Meta Analysis; Parent Child Relationship; Parents; Parents & parenting; Population; Professional Personnel; Psychological Needs; Psychosocial factors; Psychosocial Intervention; psychosocial interventions; Risk assessment; Ships; Toddlers; Trauma; Young Children; couple interventions; family interventions; psychosocial interventions; infant and early childhood mental health
• ISSN: 0194-472X; 1752-0606
• DOI: 10.1111/jmft.12570

Infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) has been defined as the capacity of infants and young children to regulate their emotions, form secure relationships, and explore their environments. For this special issue, we conducted a review of IECMH outcomes from evaluations of couple‐ and family‐based psychosocial interventions not explicitly designed for trauma exposure published from 2010 through 2019, following Evidence Base Update criteria and the current convention of classifying general categories of intervention approaches rather than the former practice of evaluating specific brand‐name packaged programs. Full‐text review of 695 articles resulted in 39 articles eligible for categorization into intervention approaches, taking into consideration the theoretical orientation of the treatment, the population served, the intervention participants, the target outcomes, the treatment theory of change, and the degree to which the intervention was standardized across participants. Four intervention approaches were identified in this review as Probably Efficacious: Behavioral Interventions to Support Parents of Toddlers, Interventions to Support Adolescent Mothers, Tiered Interventions to Provide Support Based on Assessed Risk, and Home Visiting Interventions to Provide Individualized Support to Parents. Other intervention approaches were classified as Possibly Efficacious, Experimental, or did not have sufficient evidence in this time period to classify under these criteria. Further research could explore how to ensure that all families who need support can receive it, such as by increasing the reach of effective programs and by decreasing the number of families needing additional support.