The Effectiveness of Psychoeducational Interventions in Adolescents’ Anxiety: A Systematic Review Protocol

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on increasing anxiety in adolescents. This systematic review aims to identify the most effective psychoeducational interventions for reducing anxiety in adolescents following the guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). The inclusion and exclusion criteria have been defined, and the search strategy has been planned. The search strategy will aim to locate both published and unpublished studies using, among other databases: CINAHL Plus with Full Text; PubMed; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials; and the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews. Following the search, all identified citations will be collated and uploaded into Endnote, and duplicates removed. Titles and abstracts will then be screened by two independent reviewers and by a third reviewer if a disagreement occurs. The results of the search will be reported in full in the final systematic review and presented in the PRISMA flow diagram. Eligible studies will be critically appraised for methodological quality using standardized critical appraisal instruments from the JBI. Data will be extracted from the studies included using the standardized JBI data extraction tool. For data synthesis, studies will be pooled using JBI SUMARI. The GRADE approach for grading the certainty of evidence will be followed, and a summary of findings will be created using GRADEPro GDT software. The results from this systematic review are expected to provide an overview of the most effective psychoeducational interventions for reducing anxiety in adolescents, allowing researchers to design and propose a new multicomponent psychoeducational intervention that will be validated and tested in the future. PROSPERO protocol registration number: CRD42020204356.

Keywords

• adolescent
• mental health
• anxiety
• early intervention
• educational
• systematic review