Search

• Home-visiting interventions have positive effects on child cognitive development, parenting beliefs and parenting practices of caregivers in rural China. • Home-visiting interventions have null effects on child social-emotional development in rural China. • Three mechanisms are identified through which interventions are able to raise child cognitive development. • Shifting parenting beliefs; increasing parenting practices; and shifting parenting beliefs thus fostering better parenting practices of primary caregivers are the three mechanisms that are driving our overall results of the impact of home-visiting interventions on early child development. To better understand the impacts of parenting interventions (e.g., parental training of psychosocial stimulating activities) on child developmental outcomes and design effective policies to benefit young children, it is essential to identify the mechanisms through which the interventions work. To this end, this paper presents the results of two randomized controlled trials that offered home visitation, parenting trainings to 435 households (with 527 households as the control group) in 174 villages across three provinces in China. The findings from the randomized controlled trials showed that the interventions significantly improved child cognitive development and had a positive effect on the primary caregivers' parenting practices and their parenting beliefs. The analysis suggests three possible mechanisms through which the parenting interventions affected child cognitive development: changing the parenting beliefs of the primary caregivers, shifting the parenting practices of the primary caregivers, and improving the primary caregivers' parenting beliefs, thus fostering better parenting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people with dementia live at home and depend on informal caregivers for care. Both caregivers and persons with dementia can experience negative psychological and behavioural effects as the disease progresses. Non-pharmacological interventions can alleviate these effects and dyadic interventions, involving both caregiver and person with dementia, may be particularly effective. In this systematic review, the effect of dyadic interventions involving community-dwelling persons with dementia and their informal caregivers was researched. This article is an update of a review of dyadic interventions up to 2012 (Van't Leven et al., 2013). Twenty-two randomized controlled trials published between January 2012 and March 2023 met eligibility criteria, representing 3857 dyads. Results of a meta-analysis showed no overall intervention effect. Thirteen studies reported positive intervention effects, 9 studies reported no intervention effects. Intervention content and participant characteristics and knowledge of the disease varied widely between the studies reviewed. Effective interventions were those that matched activities for the person with dementia to their interests and abilities and educating the caregiver about dementia and communication. Interventions of moderate length (3–4 months) tended to be more effective than longer or shorter interventions. Future studies should further explore the factors contributing to the effects of dyadic interventions. • Effective interventions adapt activities to preferences of the person with dementia. • Interventions most frequently improved quality of life and neuropsychiatric symptoms. • Interventions with a duration of 3–4 months were most effective. • Symptom severities and specific needs influence the efficacy of dyadic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]