How to Evaluate a Meta-Analysis

Abstract

You encounter a meta-analysis evaluating treatments for child and adolescent problems. The abstract suggests that the reviewed treatments are highly effective. The author states that current results challenge many widely held beliefs in the field and have strong implications for future research and practice. Your dilemma is that you know nothing about meta-analysis. How can you tell if this meta-analysis is trustworthy? This review could be very important but perhaps it was not conducted carefully enough to justify its findings and conclusions. What do you do? This brief chapter cannot completely resolve your dilemma but it can help you understand the key evaluative criteria for judging the quality of a meta-analysis. As a result, after reading this chapter you should have an understanding of the basic features of a good meta-analysis and where to go for further details. In fact, before discussing evaluative criteria, several excellent resources are noted that explain the basics of meta-analysis (Light & Pillemer, 1984; Rosenthal, 1995; Wolf, 1986), discuss some of the choice points and judgment calls involved (Matt