Parenting Education to Improve Relational Health Through Pediatric Primary Care: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The objective of this study was to describe characteristics of effective pediatric primary care interventions that focused on parenting education about healthy parent-child relationships. A scoping review of 4 electronic databases searched for related systematic reviews published in English from January 2000 to June 2023. The full texts of 14 systematic reviews were evaluated by 2 independent reviewers and used to identify 25 unique parenting interventions of which 21 improved outcomes more than the comparison group. Results demonstrate that a range of low to high intensity interventions can improve parent-child relationships, and many of these also improve parent mental health and child behaviors. By contrast, multi-component interventions were needed to improve child development and reduce injuries. Interventions that decreased child injuries focused on reducing parental stress through professional support, access to community resources, and mental health information. Future research is needed on pediatric primary care parenting education that incorporates responsive parenting, includes patient samples with ACEs, and measures physical health outcomes or biomarkers.