Group Psychoeducation for Anxiety Symptoms in Youth: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of randomized controlled trials of psychoeducational group interventions targeting anxiety symptoms in youths. We systematically searched for articles and located twelve studies that collectively included 1132 subjects. Analyses showed an overall effect of −0.47 (95% CI −0.75 to −0.19) on the Standardized Mean Difference (SMD) scale, suggesting that psychoeducation effectively reduces anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents. However, the I² index was 86.4% revealing the presence of substantial heterogeneity. These results suggest that psychoeducation may be a promising alternative for the prevention and/or treatment of anxiety disorders in youths.

KEYWORDS:

• Meta-analysis
• anxiety symptoms
• psychoeducational groups
• children and adolescents

Additional information

Funding

No funding was provided for this project.

Notes on contributors

Vasiliki C. Baourda

Vasiliki C. Baourda, Ph.D., is a person-centered counseling psychologist in private practice. She is also an Associate in the Laboratory of Educational Psychology, Counseling and Research of the Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece. Her research interests include psychoeducational groups, psychotherapy process and outcome and positive psychology interventions.

Andreas Brouzos

Andreas Brouzos, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Primary Education at the University of Ioannina. He is also Director of the Laboratory for Educational Psychology, Counseling and Research at the same institution.

Dimitris Mavridis

Dimitris Mavridis, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Department of Primary Education in the University of Ioannina. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the Athens University of Economics and Business and he has worked as a forensic statistician in the School of Mathematics in the University of Edinburgh. His research interests focus on statistical methods for evidence synthesis. He is interested in statistical models for publication bias, missing data and network meta-analysis. He is a statistical editor for Evidence Based Mental Health and principal investigator for work packages in two HORIZON2020 projects (OPERAM and COMPAR-EU).

Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos

Stephanos P. Vassilopoulos, Ph.D., is Professor of Mental Health Counseling in the Department of Education and Social Work at the University of Patras, Greece. He is also Director of the Relational Dynamic Education and Counselling Lab at the same institution.

Effrosyni Vatkali

Effrosyni Vatkali is a special education teacher and a PhD candidate in the field of Psychoeducation in the Department of Primary Education at University of Ioannina. She has a MSc in Counseling applied to educational and social environments from the University of Ioannina.

Christina Boumpouli

Christina Boumpouli is a PhD candidate in the Department of Primary Education at the University of Ioannina. She has a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology.