Interventions to promote well‐being of children exposed to intimate partner violence
Citation: Latzman NE, Casanueva C, Brinton J, et al. The promotion of well‐being among children exposed to intimate partner violence: A systematic review of interventions. Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2019;15:e1049.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Jacobs Foundation and Campbell Collaboration.
What is this: A wide range of psychosocial programs have been developed and implemented to try to reduce the negative impacts of exposure to intimate-partner violence by children.
In this Campbell systematic review, the authors searched for experimental and quasi-experimental studies of the effects of psychosocial interventions to promote well‐being among children exposed to intimate partner violence. They did not restrict their searches by date of publication and did the most recent search in April 2018. They included 8 randomized trials (924 participants), which were conducted in India (1 study), the Netherlands (1) and USA (6).
What works: Limited evidence suggests that in‐home intensive services (parent training and emotional support) may have a short-term effect in child externalizing behaviour.
Programmes targeting the non-offending parent (usually the mother) may have a greater effect, followed by programmes targeting the family together.
What doesn’t work: Nothing noted.
What is uncertain: The effects of many psychosocial interventions to promote well-being among children exposed to intimate partner violence are currently uncertain.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that more rigorous research into the effects of psychosocial interventions is needed to better understand the effectiveness of these interventions depending on the exposure context.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of gender, sex and age.
This summary was prepared by Alessio Bellato, checked by Yasmeen Saeed and Cristián Mansilla, and finalized by Mike Clarke.