| Summary: | Violence against children is an important public health concern across the world. Such violence may take many forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, neglect or deprivation. The consequences of violence are significant, including depression and anxiety. Therefore, it is important to find effective interventions for children who have experienced violence. We conducted a systematic review evaluating the benefits and harms of interventions for children who have experienced violence in close relationships. Key findings of this overview of reviews are based on the evidence of five moderate to high quality systematic reviews. We categorized the interventions into psychotherapy and treatment foster care. The results suggest that:1. Branded version trauma focused cognitive behavioural therapy may slightly decrease post traumatic stress disorder symptoms (low certainty of evidence).2. The effects of other psychotherapeutic interventions on post traumatic stress disorder, adverse events, and caretaker and child relationship outcomes (i.e. attachment) are uncertain (very low certainty of evidence). These psychotherapeutic interventions include child parent psychotherapy, individual or group cognitive behavioural therapy, group psychotherapy, play therapy, and psychodynamic therapy. 3. It is uncertain whether nurse home visiting, parent-child interaction therapy, trauma focused cognitive behavioural therapy and individual cognitive behavioural therapy prevent / improve adverse event outcomes (e.g. recurrance of maltreatment or safety) (very low certainty of evidence). It is uncertain whether treatment foster care interventions improve mental health, quality of life, cognition, parental and caretaker child relationship and placement outcomes. Examples of these interventions are Nurse Home Visiting, Fostering Healthy Futures, Incredible Years, Enhanced Foster Care (very low certainty of evidence)
|
|---|