Residential parenting services: An integrative literature review of characteristics, service usage and parent and staff perspectives.
Hannah Grace Dahlen, Simone Maree Ormsby, Suzanne Brownhill and 2 others
PMID 36317700WHAT IT FOUND
Parents admitted to Australian residential parenting services for unsettled infants often had clinically elevated distress and fatigue.
Included studies reported improved maternal mood, infant sleep and parenting confidence after 4-5 day stays, but no study was controlled.
Key findings
01Australian residential parenting services admitted parents and infants mainly for infant sleeping, settling and feeding problems, with stays averaging around 4-5 days.
02Many included studies found high parental psychological distress and fatigue at admission, including most EPDS studies reporting more than 25% of participants scoring beyond clinical thresholds.
03After residential parenting service stays, included studies reported statistically significant improvements in maternal mental health, parenting confidence and infant sleep or behaviour, but none of the included studies was controlled.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
All studies were from Australia, where residential parenting services are unique, so the findings may not transfer to other health systems. The review did not use a formal critical appraisal tool, and the included studies used very different designs, measures and outcomes. No included study was controlled, so improvements after a stay could reflect normal infant development, other support or concurrent treatment rather than the service itself. Participants were mostly mothers and were often socially advantaged, Australian-born and university-educated, with few Indigenous or culturally and linguistically diverse families, limiting generalisability. Some studies reported the same cohort more than once, and some response rates were low, for example 32%. The 30-year period includes changes in parenting advice, such as controlled crying no longer being recommended.
Declared interests
The review was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant. The authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the reported improvements as proof that the residential stay caused them. None of the included studies was controlled, so normal infant development, other support or concurrent treatment could explain the changes.