Therapy for under-fives reduces wider mental health problems in families, study finds
Joe Lepper
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Mental health problems in families can be reduced by offering therapeutic interventions to babies and pre-school age children as well as their parents or care givers, a study has found.
The research looked at the impact of psychotherapy sessions on children under the age of five as well as their parents and carers.
“Therapeutic interventions in the very early months and years of life can help to prevent and reduce mental health difficulties both for parents and their children,” found the study, which involved analysing 77 studies involving more than 5,600 children and care givers.
The success of this approach is due to its focus “on the crucial relationship” between young children and their care givers, the research by the Anna Freud Centre and commissioned by the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) found.
The approach also helps combat “early difficulties in the parent-baby relationship”. This includes looking at emerging emotional and behavioural challenges as well as helping parents to “make sense of the baby or young child’s experiences”.
Another reason for the approach’s success in reducing mental health problems is a focus on how parenting problems can be passed on through generations, often through past trauma in a parent’s life.
New landmark study shows that psychotherapy interventions can prevent and reduce mental health difficulties in parents and caregivers, and their young children. Research by the Anna Freud Centre, commissioned by the Association of Child Psychotherapists.
— Child Psychotherapy (@ACPtherapy) October 6, 2022
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ACP chief executive Nick Waggett said the report's findings highlight the need for greater investment in early age therapy.
“The first months and years of life are critical for shaping a range of health and social outcomes throughout someone’s lifespan," he said.
“We must improve services to support families whose difficulties are often very severe and can have adverse impacts on the health and development of children.”
Lead researcher Michelle Sleed, from the Anna Freud Centre’s child attachment and psychological therapies research unit, added that psychodynamic and psychoanalytic interventions help young children and their care givers by “supporting improvements in parental reflective functioning, parental depression, infant behaviours, and attachment”.
“We would like to see these approaches included in front-line services, delivered by child and adolescent psychotherapists and other professionals,” she said.
“By increasing awareness that effective interventions lead to real change, we have the opportunity to make improvements to the funding and provision of services in the crucial early months and years of a child's life.”
