A Systematic Review of Infant Mental Health Prevention and Treatment Programs

ABSTRACT

Although many prevention and treatment programs exist for children and families, there have been no reviews specifically examining their impact on infant mental health at the program level. Therefore, the purpose of the current review was to a) systematically examine prevention and treatment programs targeting infant mental health outcomes (i.e. internalizing problems, externalizing problems, social-emotional development, trauma) or the parent-infant relationship/attachment in children from pregnancy to 2 years; b) classify each program by level of empirical support; and c) highlight strengths and identify gaps in the existing literature to inform future mental health intervention science. From over 121,341 publications initially identified, 60 prevention and treatment programs met inclusion criteria for this review. Each program was reviewed for level of scientific evidence. Of the 60 programs reviewed, 29 (48.33%) were classified as promising, while only six (10.0%) were classified as effective. Lastly, only two programs (3.33%; Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up and Video-feedback Intervention Parenting Program) were classified as evidence-based specific to infant mental health and/or parent-infant relationship/attachment outcomes. Implications related to disseminating evidence-based prevention/treatment programs are discussed.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support of Sundari Foundation, Inc. dba Lotus House Women’s Shelter who inspired us to conduct this review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Grant [R01MH112588] and the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Grant [T32DA043449]. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of NIH.