Family therapy for childhood disorders has mental health benefits for caregivers and siblings

What is it about?

Family members benefit from their own participation in treatments for children with mental health, physical health, and developmental disorders. These benefits include improved individual adjustment, family dynamics, and extrafamilial relationships for both caregivers and siblings. The benefits of family participation are consistent across the age, gender, and minority status of family members as well as across different clinical interventions.

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Why is it important?

The findings of this study emphasize the importance of incorporating families in the design and implementation of treatments for childhood disorders and suggest that such treatments may be especially cost-effective owing to their broad clinical effects beyond the individual child. Individually focused treatments for childhood disorders do not include family members as agents of change and, thus, do not provide the same opportunities for caregivers to enhance their parenting skills, improve relations with their children, or strengthen their marriages as well as other sources of social support.