Efficacy of child cognitive-behavioral interventions for antisocial behavior: A meta-analysis

The present meta-analysis reviewed 30 studies comparing child-based cogniti ve-behavioral therapy (CBT) for antisocial behavior with no-treatment, atte ntion or wait-list control groups. The mean effect size d of CBT interventi ons was 0.48 (median 0.26) unweighted and 0.23 weighted at post-treatment. The mean effect size at follow-up was 0.66 (median = 0.32) unweighted and 0 .51 weighted. Hence, child-based CBT interventions have a small to moderate effect in decreasing antisocial behavior. Study quality was negatively cor related with post-treatment effect size. A trend was found for child age to correlate positively with post-treatment effect size, suggesting that curr ent child-based CBT interventions for antisocial behavior are more effectiv e for adolescents and older elementary-school aged children than fur younge r elementary-school aged children. Treatment components, number of treatmen t sessions, session length, sessions per week, use of a clinical vs. noncli nical sample, type of control group, source of outcome ratings and publicat ion year were unrelated to treatment efficacy. Future research directions, including the integration of individual training into group therapy and the examination of antisocial behavior subtypes (i.e., reactive vs. proactive) , are discussed.