Table 1 Description of intervention characteristics (N = 64) [174]
Intervention | Socio-ecological domain | Country | Participant group; Participant age | Intervention duration | Delivery agent and setting | Intervention components |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) [155] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Sweden | Children: Residential care Age: 16–18 years | 6 weeks | Treatment assistants Residential care placement | Group-based psychoeducational curriculum (2-h sessions) that include experiential exercises, role play and illustrations |
Animal Associated Psychotherapy (AAP) [158] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Spain | Children: Residential care Age: Mean 15.17 years | 12 weeks | Psychiatrists; Child psychologist Caserio (farm) | Individual and small group sessions (32 sessions) over 2-day visits to a farm. Sessions involve spending time with dogs, horses and other farm animals |
Attachment and Behavioural Catch-up (ABC) [143] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 0–5 years Adults: Foster carers | 10 weeks | Child psychologist; Psychiatric nurse; Social worker Foster care placement | Manualised parenting programme and coaching sessions. Sessions video-taped to tailor content to specific needs of each carer-child dyad. Monthly family support group |
Behavioural modification training; psychodynamic treatment; structured community living; adventurous learning [163] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Netherlands | Children: Residential care Age: Mean 14.9 years | Not specified | Not specified for all interventions | Four models of treatment: behavioural management by online care workers; psychodynamic treatment; structured boundaries and relationships; and adventurous learning that models self-supportive, adaptive behaviours |
Policy | Netherlands; USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care; Residential care Age: < 18 years | Not specified | Foster carers; Kinship carers; Residential carers Care placement | Comparison of different types of care placement | |
Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 3–12 years Adults: Foster carers | Not specified | CARE trainer Not specified | Trauma-informed parenting training (2 × 3 h) | |
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) [80] | Community | UK | Children: Foster care; Residential care | Not specified | Local authority staff; Mental health workers; Psychologists; Psychiatrists Community mental health services | Development of a single referral pathway to improve access and effective engagement with children and young people, through joint professional forums, partnership working and training |
Child-Directed Interaction Training (CDIT) [138] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Kinship care Age: 2–7 years old Adults: Kinship carers | 4 weeks | Graduate students Neighbourhood resource centre | Group-based coaching of carers (twice weekly) |
Organisational | USA | Children: Residential care Age: 7–18 years Adults: Residential carers; Social care/health care professionals | 3 years | Care Consultants; CARE Implementation Team (CIT) Residential care setting | Consultation, training and technical assistance to residential placements to create a therapeutic environment through policies and practices | |
Cognitive and Affective Bibliotherapy [123] | Intrapersonal | Israel | Children: Residential care Age: 6–15 years | Not specified | Trained bibliotherapists Residential care placement | Eight small group sessions (45 min) to explore eight texts. Discussion of the texts serves as a departure point for discussing emotions |
Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) [96] | Intrapersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age:13–17 years | 6 weeks | Not specified | Cognitive training programme (1 h twice per week) |
Computer game [74] | Intrapersonal | UK | Children: Residential care Age: 12–17 years | 6–18 months | Social worker Online | Online game (6 × 1-h sessions) including SIMS Life Stories (or ‘electronic dolls house’) and emotional regulation skills coaching by a social worker |
Connect-KP [117] | Interpersonal | Australia | Children: Kinship care Age: 8–16 years Adults: Kinship carers | 9 weeks | Psychologists; Clinical psychologists; Social workers Community settings | Support group sessions (weekly) to develop trauma-informed parenting and explore challenges of kinship care |
Dojo: Biofeedback videogame [97] | Intrapersonal | Netherlands | Children: Residential care Age: Mean 13.67 | 4 weeks | Researcher; Research assistant Online | Online game (30-min sessions twice weekly) with tutorials and emotion-evoking mini-games. Tutorials teach CBT relaxation techniques and positive thinking |
Early Intervention Foster Care (EIFC) [56] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: < 6 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers | 6–9 months | Clinician; Foster carer; Psychiatrist; Psychologist Care placement; School; Day care; Telephone | Before receiving a child, foster carers complete intensive training. After placement, carers are given support thorough daily contact with foster carer consultant, weekly support group meeting and 24-h on call crisis intervention. Children receive services from behavioural specialist and weekly therapeutic playgroup sessions |
Enhanced Foster Care Treatment [152] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 14–18 years Adults: Foster carers | Not specified | Not specified Foster care placement | Increased financial resource for foster carers and access to educational support |
Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy (EFP) [50] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Israel | Children: Residential care Age: 14–18 years | 7 months | Treatment facility staff Treatment facility | Psychotherapy with horses (50 min sessions weekly) to provide a healing experience and develop interpersonal adaptation skills |
Evolve Behaviour Support Services (EBSS) [107] | Interpersonal; Organisational; Community | Australia | Children: Out-of-home care; Adults: Biological families; Out-of-home carers; Social care/health care professionals | Not specified | Child Safety Officers; Clinicians Not specified | Holistic and flexible positive behaviour support for children and young people with disabilities, including: child-focused therapy; carer education and training; and environmental strategies. Collaborative working with a range of stakeholders to ensure coordinated, integrated and targeted service delivery |
Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 6–17 years Adults: Biological parents; Other family members | 40 days | Independent professional; Child’s case worker Not specified | Approach for searching for, discovering and engaging actual and fictive kin to support attachment and permanency needs | |
Family Minds [120] | Interpersonal | USA | Adults: Foster carers | 6 weeks | Study author Online | Group-based curricula (3 classes of 3 h each) to increase carers’ reflective functioning and mentalisation skills |
Foster carer and foster children group-based intervention [142] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: Mean 11.54 years Adults: Foster carers | 12 months | Trained foster carers; Graduate students; Undergraduate students | Group-based programme (6 sessions, twice weekly over 3 weeks), with one group for girls and one for foster carers. Follow-up training and support provided (2 h once per week) on individual basis for girls and group basis for carers for subsequent school year |
Foster carer training [136] | Interpersonal | UK | Children: Foster care Age: 5–16 years Adults: Foster carers | 1 week | Social workers Not specified | Training sessions (6 h per day for 3 days) including didactive material, group material and homework tasks to improve carers communication and attachment |
Foster carer training [61] | Interpersonal | UK | Adults: Foster carers | 3 days | Clinical psychologist Not specified | Pre-training materials and in-person group training on managing challenging behaviour, with follow-up to discuss progress |
Interpersonal | Belgium | Adults: Foster carers | 10 weeks | Trained specialist foster carers Foster care placement | Weekly home visits to deliver a curriculum that includes psychoeducation, practice of emotions and communication skills. Homework tasks of daily 10-min play activity. Group sessions to provide peer support | |
Interpersonal | UK | Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers | 12 weeks | Trained facilitators Not specified | Group-based training (3 h weekly) with support group to reinforce learning | |
Interpersonal | Ireland | Adults: Foster carers | 6 weeks | Trainer practitioners Community setting | Trauma-informed psychoeducational programme (3.5 h weekly). Content includes experiential exercises, videos, role play, discussion and at home exercises. Carers receive a toolkit and homework book | |
Fostering Healthy Futures (FHF) [64,65,66, 69, 70, 101, 144] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Out-of-home care Age: 9–11 years | 30 weeks | Facilitators; Masters-level social workers Not specified | Group-based manualised curricula (1.5 h weekly) and one-to-one mentoring to model positive social relationships |
Fostering Individualised Assistance programme (FIAP) [125] | Intrapersonal; Organisational; Community | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 7–15 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers; Social care/health care professionals | Not specified | FIAP family specialists Foster care placement; Community settings; School | Specialist acts as a family-centred, clinical case manager and home-based counsellor. Provide strength-based assessment, life domain planning, clinical case management, and tailoring of services |
Glasgow Infant Family Team (GIFT); London Infant Family Team (LIFT); New Orleans Model [103, 175] | Interpersonal; Organisational; Community | UK | Children: Foster care; Kinship care Age: 0–5 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers; Kinship carers; Social care/health care professionals | 12 weeks | Psychiatrists; Psychologists; Social workers; Family liaison workers Not specified | Referrals made to multi-disciplinary team who engage in series of interviews, observations and questionnaires to assess family functioning (biological family) and parental mental health to make placement decision. Social work team meets with family (2 h per meeting for eight meetings) over 3 months |
Head, Heart, Hands [93] | Interpersonal; Organisational | UK | Adults: Foster carers; Social care / health care professionals | Not specified | Social pedagogues Foster care system | One-day taster session, 2-day orientation course, 8-day core course and follow-on group to support introduction of social pedagogic learning |
Head Start [131] | Community | USA | Children: In and out-of-home care Age: 3–4 years Adults: In and out-of-home carers | 12 months | Community service providers Community services | Wraparound community services and support, including early learning in vocabulary and early literacy, maths skills, and behavioural and emotional problems |
HealthRHYTHMS [124] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Residential care Age: 12–18 | 6 weeks | Trained facilitator; Counsellor Not specified | Group sessions (1 h weekly) including self-expression with a drum, before progressing to verbal and written communication. Combined with tactile conditioning, where young people have a crystal to heighten emotional awareness |
Herts and Mind: Mentalization-Based Therapy [94] | Interpersonal | UK | Children: Foster care Age: 5–11 years Adults: Foster carers | 12 weeks | CAMHS Targeted Team Not specified | Short manualised treatment including a combination of psychoeducation about attachment and mentalising in children with histories of maltreatment; consultations with professionals; and relational work |
Interpersonal | Portugal; UK; USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care; Residential care Age: 2–12 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers; Kinship carers; Residential carers | 12–18 weeks | Experienced foster carers; Social workers Care placement; Community settings | Parenting group (2–2.5 h sessions). One-to one home visit programme to reinforce skills learnt during sessions | |
Individual therapy and rehabilitative strategies [160] | Intrapersonal | USA | Children: Foster care | Not specified. Data availability for 3 years | Counsellors and therapeutic specialists Foster care placement; Therapeutic setting | Individual therapy: Varying types of therapy with mental health provider offering at home sessions 2–5 times per week Therapeutic behavioural services: Treatment services between a child and mental health provider 2–5 times per week |
Intensive Permanence Systems (IPS) [86] | Interpersonal; Organisational | USA | Children: Foster care Adults: ‘Supportive connections’ | 24 months | IPS experienced staff Not specified | Family search and engagement strategies to create a supportive network for youth to help on the path to permanency |
kContact [169] | Interpersonal | Australia | Children: Foster care Age: 0–14 years Adults: Biological parents | 9 months | Caseworkers Telephone | Four phases of support for biological parents to plan for, reflection upon and review goals for contact with child |
Keeping Foster and Kinship Parents Supported and Trained(KEEP) | Interpersonal; Organisational; Community | USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care Age:4–16 years Adults: Foster carers; Kinship carers; Social care/health care professionals | 16 weeks | Trained facilitators Care placement; Community settings | Parenting group (90 min weekly), home practice activities and weekly check in phone calls. Different community implementation models to integrate into child welfare system |
Kids in Transition to Schools (KITS) [148] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: In and out-of-home care Age: 4–6 years | 7 weeks | Not specified Care placement; School | Therapeutic playgroups (2 h, twice weekly) to learn and practice the social and self-regulatory requirements of school |
Kundalini Yoga [105] | Intrapersonal | UK | Children: Residential care Age: Mean 14.78 years Adults: Residential staff | 20 weeks | Not specified Residential care placement | Yoga classes (44–60-min sessions) teaching posture, breathing and meditation |
Life Story [85] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 7–15 years | 7 months | Teachers; Child welfare professionals; Counsellors Foster care placement | Meeting once per week to construct a culturally sensitive narrative of personal experience, where the professional challenges assumptions about substance use |
Mentoring intervention for teenage pregnancy [59] | Interpersonal | UK | Children: In and out-of-home care Age: 5–16 years | 1 year | Peer mentors Range of settings | Peer mentoring sessions with trained peers. Engaged in a range of activities, and communication via email, face-to-face, telephone and text |
Mindfulness [89] | Intrapersonal | USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care Age: 14–21 years | 10 weeks | Psychologist; Research Assistant Health clinic | Mindfulness curriculum (2-h sessions) with guest speakers, crafts, yoga, music and socialising |
Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC); Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care-Adolescents (MTFC-A); Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care-Pre-schoolers (MTFC-P) | Interpersonal; Organisational; Community; | Netherlands; UK; USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care; Residential care Age: 3–17 years Adults: Foster carers; Social care/health care professionals | Approx. 2 years | Foster carers; Clinicians; Therapists; Programme supervisors; Skills workers; Education workers Care placement; Community settings | Specialist, supported foster carers with expertise in behaviour management. Range of wraparound services, including clinical and educational provision. Different community implementation models to integrate into child welfare system |
Nonviolent Resistance (NVR) Training [145] | Interpersonal | Belgium | Children: Foster care Age: Mean 11.6 years Adults: Foster carers | 10 weeks | Foster care workers Foster care placement | Training programme (75 min sessions per week) with telephone support between every two sessions, a workbook, handout and DVD, |
Opportunities Box [164] | Intrapersonal | Portugal | Children: Foster care Age: 14–17 years | 6 weeks | Psychologist Not specified | Sessions (90 min) on career ability, adaptability and decision-making |
Outpatient mental health services [147] | Community | USA | Children: Foster care | Not specified | Outpatient mental health service providers Outpatient mental health services | Access and availability to outpatient mental health services, including drug and alcohol clinics, community health centres, crisis centres and private professional treatment |
Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 2–7 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers | 14 weeks | Clinician; PCIT graduate student Outpatient setting; Telephone | Parent management training (2/3 full days and weekly phone consultation) with two stages: Child-Directed interaction (CDI) to promote parent–child bonding; and Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI) to enhance parent management | |
Parent Management Training (PMT); Parent Management Training Oregon Model (PMTO) | Interpersonal | Netherlands; USA | Children: Foster care; Kinship care Age: 3–16 years Adults: Biological parents; Foster carers; Kinship carers | 16 weeks | Trained facilitators Community setting; Care placement | Group programme (90 min 1–2 time weekly) and home visit supervision in behaviour management. Combined with home practice assignments |
Pathways Home [54] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 5–12 years Adults: Biological parents | 32 weeks | Trained consultants Not specified | Parenting curriculum to prevent reunification failure by supporting development of a safe and nurturing environment. Booster sessions to fine-tune skills |
Promoting First Relationships [139] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 10–24 months Adults: Biological parents | 10 weeks | Community mental health agencies Biological parent home | Brief manualised sessions (60–75 min weekly) with video feedback, worksheets and handouts |
Psychosocial rehabilitation [166] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 3–18 years | 12–24 months | Children’s psychosocial rehabilitation specialists Foster care placement | Home support offering individualised family-focused and child-centred treatment (4–8 h per week), in addition to specialist support to relevant adults (2 h per week) |
Sanctuary Model [162] | Intrapersonal | USA | Children: Residential care Age: 12–20 years | 12 weeks | Residential care staff Residential care placement | Psychoeducational curriculum. Technical assistance from residential care staff. Twice daily community meetings |
Solution Focused Parenting Group (SFPG) [102] | Interpersonal | Canada | Children: Foster care Adults: Foster carers | 6 weeks | Facilitator Not specified | Parenting group (90 min weekly) focusing on identifying parenting solutions, homework to practice skills, and feedback |
SuppOrting Looked after children In Decreasing Drugs, and alcohol (SOLID) [72, 108, 109] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | UK | Children: Foster care; Kinship care; Residential care Age: 12–20 years | 35 days | Motivational interviewing practitioner; Counsellor Care placement | Two behaviour change interventions: Motivational enhancement therapy: Client-centred counselling (6 sessions) with problem feedback component to reflect on impact of drug and alcohol use Social behaviour and network therapy: Behavioural and cognitive strategies to help build social networks that are supportive of positive behaviour change in relation to problem substance use and goal attainment |
TAKE CHARGE [113] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 14–17 years | 12 months | Coaches; Peers; Foster care alumni Not specified | Coaching (50 h) in self-determination and goal achievement. Three mentoring sessions with intervention peers and foster care alumni |
Teach Your Children Well (TYCW) [133] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Canada | Children: Foster care Age: Not specified | 30 weeks | Researchers; Foster carers Foster care placement | Individual tutoring (3-h sessions) including tutoring in reading, reading aloud to foster carer or other adult, and self-paced supervised maths instruction |
Therapeutic Mentoring [171] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age:6–15 years | 6–9 months | Clinician Not specified | Therapeutic mentoring relationship (4–5 h, weekly) involving pre-planned activities within the mentor–mentee relationship |
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) and evidence-based engagement strategies [83, 112] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age:6–15 years Adults: Foster carers; Kinship carers | Not specified | Clinician; Counsellors; Social workers Not specified for TF-CBT; Telephone and foster care placement for engagement strategies | Sessions (12–20 sessions) with child, carer and child-carer, focusing on parenting, psychoeducation and trauma. Supplementary engagement component, with contact between clinician and family via telephone, in person or both to address participation barriers |
Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) [115] | Community | USA | Children: In and out-of-home care Age: Mean 11.98 years Adults: Social care/health care professionals | 3 years | Not specified | Social care system-wide trauma-informed model of clinical provision and service coordination. Informs decision-making for treatment, training for staff, and system culture |
Treatment Foster Care (TFC); Treatment Foster Care (TFC) for Older Youth; Together Facing the Challenge (TFTC) [55, 57, 63, 91, 95, 127, 176] | Interpersonal; Organisational; Community | USA | Children: Foster care Age: < 18 years Adults: Foster carers; Social care/health care professionals | Approx. 12 months | Key staff; Life coach; Psychiatric nurse Care placement; Clinician settings; Community settings | Parenting programme (approx. 2.5 h weekly) including role play and didactic instruction. Range of wraparound services that includes psychiatric support, life skills development, life coaching in education and employment |
Triple P for Foster Carers (TPFC) [111] | Interpersonal | Germany | Children: Foster care Adults: Foster carers | 5 weeks | Triple P facilitators Community settings | Manualised parenting group (2.5 h weekly), two 20-min telephone consultations and a closure session |
Wave by Wave [168] | Intrapersonal; Interpersonal | Portugal | Children: Residential care Age: 10–16 years | 6 months | Psychologists; Surf instructors Carcavelos beach, Portugal | Psychoeducation activities and surf classes (3 h weekly sessions) |
Youth-Initiated Mentoring (YIM) Relationships [99] | Interpersonal | USA | Children: Foster care Age: 16–25 years | 12 months | Mentor from social services, school, church, family or former foster carer Not specified | Youth nominated mentor meets with young person (1 per month) to provide informational, companionship, emotional, appraisal and instrumental support |