Youth Psychotherapy and the Science of Research Synthesis

Intervention scientists have published over 600 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of youth psychotherapies. In addition, four decades of meta-analyses have been used to synthesize the RCT findings and identify scientifically and clinically meaningful patterns. These meta-analyses reveal (a) mental health problems for which our interventions are more and less successful (e.g., anxiety and depression, respectively); (b) the beneficial effects of single-session interventions, interventions delivered remotely, and interventions tested in low- and middle-income countries; (c) the association of societal sexism and racism with reduced treatment benefit in majority-girl and majority-Black groups; and, importantly, (d) the finding that average youth treatment benefit has not increased across five decades of research, suggesting that new strategies may be needed.