The impact of family interventions on communication in the context of anxiety and depression in those aged 14–24 years: systematic review of randomised control trials

Abstract

Background: the ability to communicate is integral to all human relationships. Previous research has specifically highlighted communication within families as both a risk and protective factor for anxiety disorders and/or depression. Yet, there is limited understanding about whether communication is amenable to intervention in the context of adolescent psychopathology, and whether doing so improves outcomes.

Aims: the aim of this systematic review was to determine in which contexts and for whom does addressing communication in families appear to work, not work and why?

Method: we pre-registered our systematic review with PROSPERO (identifier CRD42022298719), followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidance and assessed study quality with the Risk of Bias 2 tool.

Results: seven randomised controlled trials were identified from a systematic search of the literature. There was significant heterogeneity in the features of communication that were measured across these studies. There were mixed findings regarding whether family-focused interventions led to improvements in communication. Although there was limited evidence that family-focused interventions led to improvements in communication relative to interventions without a family-focused component, we discuss these findings in the context of the significant limitations in the studies reviewed.

Conclusions: we conclude that further research is required to assess the efficacy of family-focused interventions for improving communication in the context of anxiety and depression in those aged 14–24 years.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Peter J. Lawrence: orcid.org/0000-0001-6181-433X

Catalogue record

Export record

Altmetrics