The earlier the better? Individual participant data and traditional meta‐analysis of age effects of parenting interventions

Gardner, Frances, Leijten, Patty, Melendez‐Torres, G. J., Landau, Sabine, Harris, Victoria, Mann, Joanna, Beecham, Jennifer, Hutchings, Judy and Scott, Stephen (2018) The earlier the better? Individual participant data and traditional meta‐analysis of age effects of parenting interventions. Child Development. ISSN 0009-3920

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Abstract

Strong arguments have been made for early intervention for child problems, stating that early is more effective than later, as the brain is more malleable, and costs are lower. However, there is scant evidence from trials to support this hypothesis, which we therefore tested in two well‐powered, state‐of‐the‐art meta‐analyses with complementary strengths: (a) Individual participant data (IPD) meta‐analysis of European trials of Incredible Years parenting intervention (k = 13, n = 1696; age = 2–11); (b) Larger, trial‐level robust variance estimation meta‐analysis of a wider range of parenting programs (k = 156, n = 13,378, Mage = 2–10) for reducing disruptive behavior. Both analyses found no evidence that intervention earlier in childhood was more effective; programs targeted at a narrower age range were no more effective than general ones.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678624
Additional Information:	© 2018 Society for Research in Child Development
Divisions:	Care Policy and Evaluation Centre
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2018 14:59
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2024 17:42
Projects:	12‐3070‐04
Funders:	National Institute of Health Research, Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, Socialstyrelsen
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/90422

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