The last 20 years has seen debate regarding the merits of involving parents in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for youth anxiety played out across systematic reviews which have high impact. These reviews examined varying treatment formats in relation to parent involvement, including youth only CBT (Y-CBT), parent only CBT (P-CBT) and family CBT (youth and parent; F-CBT). This is a novel overview of systematic reviews examining evidence for parental involvement in CBT for youth anxiety over the period this was studied. Two independent coders systematically searched for studies in medical and psychological databases using the categories “Review”, “Youth”, “Anxiety”, “Cognitive Behavior Therapy” and “Parent/Family”. Of the 2,189 unique articles identified, there were 25 systematic reviews since 2005 which compared the effects of CBT for youth anxiety with varying parent involvement. Despite systematically studying the same phenomenon, the reviews were heterogeneous in outcome, design, inclusion criteria and often had methodological limitations. Of the 25 reviews, 21 found no difference between formats and 22 reviews were considered inconclusive. Yet while there were typically no statistical differences, consistent patterns in the direction of effects were detected over time. P-CBT was less effective than other formats, suggesting the importance of directly treating anxious youths. Early reviews favored F-CBT over Y-CBT, however, later reviews did not show this trend. We consider the effects of moderators including exposure therapy, long-term outcomes and the child’s age. We consider how to manage heterogeneity in primary studies and reviews to better detect treatment differences where they exist.

Trial registration This protocol is registered with the Open Science Framework: osf.io/2u58t.

过去 20 年，关于让父母参与认知行为疗法 (CBT) 治疗青少年焦虑的优点的争论在具有重大影响的系统评价中展开。这些综述研究了与家长参与相关的不同治疗形式，包括仅青少年 CBT (Y-CBT)、仅家长 CBT (P-CBT) 和家庭 CBT（青少年和家长；F-CBT）。这是对系统评价的新颖概述，研究了在研究期间父母参与青少年焦虑的认知行为治疗的证据。两名独立编码员使用“评论”、“青年”、“焦虑”、“认知行为疗法”和“父母/家庭”类别系统地搜索医学和心理数据库中的研究。在确定的 2,189 篇独特文章中，有 25 篇自 2005 年以来的系统评价，比较了不同家长参与情况下 CBT 对青少年焦虑的影响。尽管系统地研究了同一现象，但这些综述在结果、设计、纳入标准方面存在差异，并且往往存在方法学局限性。在 25 条评论中，21 条发现格式之间没有差异，22 条评论被认为没有结论。然而，虽然通常不存在统计差异，但随着时间的推移，我们发现了影响方向的一致模式。P-CBT 的效果不如其他形式，这表明直接治疗焦虑青少年的重要性。早期的评论倾向于 F-CBT 而不是 Y-CBT，然而，后来的评论并没有显示出这种趋势。我们考虑调节因素的影响，包括暴露疗法、长期结果和孩子的年龄。我们考虑如何管理初步研究和综述中的异质性，以更好地发现存在的治疗差异。

试用注册该协议已在开放科学框架中注册：osf.io/2u58t。