Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Oct 16, 2023; 11(29): 7082-7090
Published online Oct 16, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i29.7082
Meta-analysis on the effectiveness of parent education for children with disabilities
JongSik Jang, Geonwoo Kim, Hyewon Jeong, Narae Lee, Seri Oh
JongSik Jang, Department of Occupatioanl Therapy, Kangwon National University, Gangwon-do, Samcheok 25945, South Korea
Geonwoo Kim, Hyewon Jeong, Narae Lee, Seri Oh, Department of Occupational Therapy, Kangwon National University Graduate School, Gangwon-do, Samcheok 25949, South Korea
Author contributions: Jang J and Oh S wrote the paper; Jang J, Kim G, Jeong H, Lee N and Oh S edited and revised the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 checklist and the manuscript has been prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Seri Oh, MS, Lecturer, Department of Occupatioanl Therapy, Kangwon National University Graduate School, No. 346 Hwangjo-gil, Dogye-eup, Gangwon-do, Samcheok 25949, South Korea. dhtpfl247@naver.com
Received: July 3, 2023
Peer-review started: July 3, 2023
First decision: August 10, 2023
Revised: August 24, 2023
Accepted: September 19, 2023
Article in press: September 19, 2023
Published online: October 16, 2023
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Parents of children with disabilities often have difficulty understanding their child’s behavior and are unable to do it appropriately because they do not know what to do. The more we properly understand children with disabilities, the more positive the importance of parent education becomes in various aspects.

AIM

To demonstrate the effectiveness of parent education for children with disabilities in various aspects and present it as evidence that can be used clinically.

METHODS

For a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of parent education for children with disabilities, literature was collected from 2002 to 2022 using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Directory of Open Access Journals, and Europe PMC. Search terms were “disabled children,” “disabled children,” “parent education,” “parent training,” and “parent coaching.” The final searched literature included a total of 11 articles. To calculate the effect size, the mean, standard deviation, and sample size of the experimental and control groups were analyzed, and a meta-analysis was performed using RevMan version 5.4.1. To analyze statistical heterogeneity, a chi-square test was performed to evaluate the significance of Q statistics to indicate statistical heterogeneity.

RESULTS

The final literature totaled 11 articles, and a total of 4 items were analyzed. There were 5 studies on parental depression, the heterogeneity was 98%, and the effect size for parental depression was 0.35 [confidence interval (CI: 0.30-0.40)], indicating a small but statistically significant effect size. There were 4 studies on parenting attitude, the heterogeneity was 100%, the effect size on parenting attitude was 0.41 (CI: 0.37-0.46), which was a medium effect size, and the P value showed a statistically significant score. Additionally, face-to-face parent education was found to have a larger effect size than non-face-to-face education. Regarding parent education methods, face-to-face parent education had a medium effect size [0.57 (CI: 0.52-0.61]), while non-face-to-face parent education had a small effect size [0.23 (CI: 0.18-0.28]).

CONCLUSION

Parental education has shown high effectiveness in child development, and it has proven to be even more effective when face-to-face parenting education is conducted. Accordingly, more effective and objective data was presented. Based on this study, it is believed that parent education research applying various diagnostic groups should continue to be conducted.

Keywords: Children, Children with disabilities, Education, Meta-analysis, Parents, Parent education

Core Tip: Previous meta-analyses targeting the education of parents of children with disabilities have been limited to domestic papers or meta-analyses on parental depression and parenting attitude. Studies on the effectiveness of face-to-face versus non-face-to-face parental education is lacking. Our meta-analysis showed that parental education for parents of children with disabilities effectively enhanced parental attitude and diminished parental depression. We suggest effective educational methods and future research directions for parents of children with disabilities.