SynthesisPsychological bulletin2026
Universal interventions to improve young children's mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Psychological bulletin, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Universal interventions to improve young children's mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This meta-analytic review quantified the effects of universal interventions, those implemented with all children, on improving mental well-being in young children aged 0-6 years old. Potential factors that moderated the effects of interventions were explored. A systematic search of PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (Elton B. Stephens Company), APA PsycInfo (ProQuest), and grey literature identified 21,942 records. After screening, 134 articles reporting 133 studies and 141 interventions among 32,512 participants met eligibility criteria. Meta-analyses were conducted, using random-effects models and cluster-robust variance estimation to account for within-study dependence and to compute pooled Hedges' g. Mean effects at postintervention were small-to-medium on overall mental well-being (g = 0.35) across cognitive (g = 0.35), social (g = 0.36), emotional (g = 0.38), and behavioral (g = 0.31) domains. Sensitivity analyses (e.g., excluding high-risk and low-reliability studies) produced similar results. Follow-up effects adjusted for baseline were 0.22, and the maintenance of effects from postintervention to follow-up was only 0.04. Exploratory moderator analyses revealed three significant moderators, including study design, control group, and intervention target. Child-focused interventions yielded the largest effects, exceeding those targeting family and child, the occupational role (e.g., teachers), or family member only. Though these results support some promises of universal interventions for enhancing early mental well-being, interpretation warrants caution. Between-study heterogeneity was substantial, some studies exhibited a high risk of bias, and publication bias was present. Future research should prioritize rigorous designs with follow-up assessments and booster strategies to support maintenance and include implementation-relevant outcomes (e.g., fidelity), while adhering to transparent reporting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
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.