Interventions for parentally bereaved adolescents: What is their effectiveness? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Parentally bereaved adolescents constitute a high-risk group susceptible to many short and long term negative outcomes, such as prolonged grief and depression. Numerous different interventions have been proposed and implemented aiming to support this population. However, there has been no comprehensive review or empirical support for all of them. This thesis aims to systematically review intervention studies for parentally bereaved adolescents and report on their effectiveness. Time interval between loss and treatment, symptom severity at baseline, interventions’ structure, therapeutic confrontation, participants’ age, and percentage of parental death were examined as plausible moderators. The dataset was extracted in December 2019 from nine electronic databases. Study characteristics regarding the interventions, samples, measures, and outcomes were extracted from 30 articles. Based on the sufficiently reported statistical data of 25 studies an overall effect size was estimated for...Show moreParentally bereaved adolescents constitute a high-risk group susceptible to many short and long term negative outcomes, such as prolonged grief and depression. Numerous different interventions have been proposed and implemented aiming to support this population. However, there has been no comprehensive review or empirical support for all of them. This thesis aims to systematically review intervention studies for parentally bereaved adolescents and report on their effectiveness. Time interval between loss and treatment, symptom severity at baseline, interventions’ structure, therapeutic confrontation, participants’ age, and percentage of parental death were examined as plausible moderators. The dataset was extracted in December 2019 from nine electronic databases. Study characteristics regarding the interventions, samples, measures, and outcomes were extracted from 30 articles. Based on the sufficiently reported statistical data of 25 studies an overall effect size was estimated for the interventions and moderator analyses were conducted. A pooled effect size of -0.397 was found, indicating a small to moderate positive effect of these interventions on the participants’ life. Therapeutic confrontation, unstructured interventions, and targeting severely distressed participants were the intervention characteristics that positively moderated the intervention effectiveness. Different effect sizes were reported for separate outcome constructs, ranging from g = -0.029 to g = -1.203. Trauma-related outcomes reported the largest point estimate, while cortisol levels the smallest. To summarize, interventions targeting parentally bereaved adolescents can positively affect their participants during the difficult period following the loss of their parents. However, further and more targeted research is required to achieve larger effects.Show less

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Interventions for parentally bereaved adolescents: What is their effectiveness? A systematic review and meta-analysis