Intervention with adolescent mother-child dyads and cognitive development in early childhood: A meta-analysis

Forfatter(e)

Baudry, C. Tarabulsy, G. M. Atkinson, L. Pearson, J. St-Pierre, A.

År

2017

DOI

10.1007/s11121-016-0731-7

Sider

116-130

Kategori(er)

Samspill og tilknytningKognisjon (hukommelse, oppmerksomhet og eksekutive funksjoner)

Tiltakstype(r)

Abstract

The cognitive development of children of adolescent mothers has often been considered to be at risk. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine whether early intervention could help foster more positive cognitive development in the 0- to 4-year-old children of adolescent mothers. Twenty-two studies were reviewed, involving 29 different intervention strategies and 3577 participants.

An overall effect size (corrected for publication bias) of d = .24 was found (95% CI .11, .36). Intervention strategies that focused specifically on the quality of parent-child interaction (d = .89; 95%CI .36, 1.43) or that included parent-child interaction as an important target of intervention (d = .53; 95%CI .34, .73) yielded greater effect sizes than those that emphasized maternal support and education (d = .23; 95% CI .12, .34). Intervention that was delivered in groups (d = .56; 95% CI .36, .74) yielded greater effectiveness than dyadic intervention (d = .27; 95% CI .14, .39). Intervention delivered by trained professionals (d = .39; 95% CI .22, .56) was more effective than that delivered by paraprofessionals (d = .20; 95% CI -.02, .61).

Older studies (slope = -.015) and those that involved smaller numbers of participants (slope = -.0008) also yielded greater effect sizes. There was also a marginal tendency for shorter intervention strategies (slope = -.002), and those that involved younger children (slope = -.005) and mothers (slope = -.074) to show greater effects.

Discussion focuses on the developmental and practical implications of these results: