SynthesisPsychotherapy and psychosomatics2025
The World Health Organization's Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions: A Systematic Review on Current Evidence regarding Effectiveness and Implementation.
Synthesis in Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAdolescents in many low- and middle-income countries are frequently exposed to adversities such as armed conflicts and economic hardship. These stressors occur during a critical developmental period marked by profound physical, social, and psychological changes, increasing vulnerability to mental disorders. To address this mental health-care need, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) developed Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE), a 10-session group intervention for adolescents and their caregivers. This systematic review summarizes current evidence regarding the effectiveness and implementation of EASE.
methodsWe searched five electronic databases up to July 26, 2025, for trials evaluating the effects of EASE on adolescents' mental distress and caregivers' parenting behaviors. Random-effects multilevel meta-analyses were conducted using standardized mean differences (SMDs) at post-intervention and 3-month follow-up, complemented by a qualitative synthesis of implementation outcomes. Preregistration ID: CRD42023488490.
resultsNo evidence was found for superiority of EASE over a 1-session psychoeducation control on overall mental distress or caregiver outcomes. However, for the primary outcome, internalizing symptoms, there was strong evidence of a very small to small favorable effect at post-intervention, SMD = -0.17, 95% CI: [-0.31, -0.04], which was maintained at follow-up. Implementation studies indicated that EASE is acceptable, feasible, and delivered with good fidelity; yet low caregiver engagement and contextual challenges hindered implementation.
conclusionObserved effects were smaller than those reported for a comparable WHO intervention for adults, highlighting substantial scope for optimization. Additional high-quality trials are warranted to improve the effectiveness of EASE and maximize its potential public health impact.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.