The effectiveness of parenting interventions for families with adolescents that exhibit mental health problems: a systematic review

Positive parenting interventions have been claimed as an excellent vehicle for increasing parents’ child-rearing resources and competencies, particularly since the publication of the Council of Europe Recommendation in 2006 on policies to support positive parenting. However, further evidence is needed regarding their effectiveness, especially for interventions targeting vulnerable parents, such as those whose adolescents exhibit mental health problems. This systematic review complements existing syntheses by examining the effects of positive parenting interventions in adolescent samples across multiple levels of the family system (individual, dyadic, and family) while considering both difficulties and strengths. Following the PRISMA guidelines, the PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Medline, and Psychology databases, as well as Psycarticles, were systematically searched in March 2022 and last updated in July 2024 for studies published since 2006. Randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies were included in this review. From 4103 potentially relevant studies, a final sample of 16 articles was included. Seven studies included adolescents with externalizing problems, six with internalizing and externalizing problems, and three with internalizing problems. Eleven studies included face-to-face support programs, and five were online or app-based programs. Overall, findings indicate that parenting interventions are generally associated with reductions in adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms, although effects varied across studies and occasional null or adverse outcomes were reported. Beyond symptom reduction, interventions may also be associated with benefits for adolescent and parental well-being; however, these outcomes were infrequently assessed, limiting conclusions. Most interventions were additionally associated with improvements in parenting and family-system–related outcomes. Taken together, these results suggest that positive parenting interventions may be associated with adolescent adjustment alongside improvements at the parent and family-system levels, while underscoring the importance of outcome-specific evaluation and further research on long-term effects.