Supporting Parents of Adolescents With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review of Interventions.

Only one of the 12 studies was conducted outside Europe or North America, and all were in English, limiting generalisability. Fathers were largely absent: 863 of 1,041 caregivers identified as female or mothers, and the two MBPBS studies included only mothers. Most studies were non-randomised or pre-post designs without a control group, making causal claims difficult. None of the 12 studies met full MMAT quality criteria; common issues included incomplete outcome data, unaccounted confounding, and unrepresentative samples. Three Dutch studies included adolescents with a Full Scale IQ below 85, meaning some participants did not meet the review's own definition of intellectual disability. All parent-experience studies had samples of 30 or fewer, and qualitative data collection methods in two of them were described as insufficient for in-depth insight. The review excluded single-case studies with fewer than three participants, which may have omitted relevant intervention evidence.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Do not read the positive results from the three randomised trials as proof that these programmes work for your families. The authors state there is insufficient evidence for clear conclusions about effectiveness, the effect sizes are small to moderate, one of the five parent well-being interventions showed no significant benefit, and none of the 12 studies met full quality criteria.