Identifying Effective Components in Preventive Parenting Behaviour Change Interventions: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract This meta-analysis looks at the effect of preventive parenting interventions and which categories of behaviour change techniques are effective in preventing adverse parenting behaviour and child psychosocial development outcomes. A three-level meta-analysis was conducted on studies with a randomised controlled trial or controlled trial design reporting a post-intervention assessment of a parenting behaviour measure for a preventive parenting intervention for parents who are expecting a child or who have a child aged 0 to 4. We included 79 studies reporting 86 interventions (N = 14,877 participants) on primarily American (33%) and European (29%) populations with a mean parent age of 30.4 and a mean child age of 1.6 years. We found a moderate positive effect both for parenting ( g = 0.28) and child ( g = 0.25) outcomes. Effect sizes were significantly larger for interventions targeting parents with lower socioeconomic status and for indicated prevention interventions. Interventions providing information on the consequences of specific behaviour yielded smaller effect sizes for both outcomes, whereas interventions aimed at parental involvement resulted in better child outcomes. Some behaviour change technique categories were often applied in interventions and had moderate effect sizes. We recommend continuing the use of these techniques.