Lack of evidence on mental health and well-being impacts of individual-level interventions for vulnerable adolescents: systematic mapping review

• Published in: Public health (London) 2018-08, Vol.161, p.29-32
• Main Authors: Vojt, G., Skivington, K., Sweeting, H., Campbell, M., Fenton, C., Thomson, H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; At-risk adolescents; Caregivers; Health disparities; Health inequalities; Health Promotion; Health status; High risk; Homeless people; Homelessness; Humans; Individual differences; Intervention; Literature reviews; Mapping; Mapping review; Mental Health; Mental health services; Offenders; Program Evaluation; Quality assessment; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Reviews; Systematic review; Teenagers; Vulnerability; Vulnerable adolescents; Vulnerable Populations - psychology; Vulnerable Populations - statistics & numerical data; Well being; Young adults; Youth
• ISSN: 0033-3506; 1476-5616
• DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2018.04.003

To review empirical evaluations of individual-level interventions intended to improve mental health or well-being for vulnerable adolescents. This is a systematic mapping review. Thirteen databases covering academic and gray literature were searched for published reviews and randomised controlled trials, and gray literature (2005–2016) and the results quality-assessed to prioritise best available evidence. We aimed to identify well-conducted systematic reviews and trials that evaluated individual-level interventions, for mental health/well-being outcomes, where the population was adolescents aged 10–24 years in any of 12 vulnerable groups at high risk of poor health outcomes (e.g. homeless, offenders, ‘looked after’, carers). Thirty systematic reviews and 16 additional trials were identified. There was insufficient evidence to identify promising individual-level interventions that improve the mental health/well-being of any of the vulnerable groups. Despite Western policy to promote health and well-being among vulnerable young people, the dearth of evidence suggests a lack of interest in evaluating interventions targeting these groups in respect of their mental health/well-being outcomes. •Adolescence is a critical life course period for interventions to reduce/prevent current and future distress and dysfunction.•Alongside population health approaches, targeted approaches to high-risk groups are valuable to address health inequalities.•We found insufficient evidence of individual-level interventions to improve mental health/wellbeing of vulnerable groups.•Despite policy, our review suggests a lack of evaluation of mental health/wellbeing outcomes of such targeted interventions.