Personalised interventions for subgroups of children with conduct problems: a systematic review

Conduct problems are a range of disruptive behaviours in childhood that are associated with long-term adverse outcomes in adolescence and adulthood, including antisocial behaviour, substance misuse, and poor academic achievement. Children with conduct problems can vary according to age of onset, comorbidities, and environmental factors, and certain groups of children may have different treatment outcomes. It is therefore important to assess the extent to which personalised interventions for pre-specified groups of children with conduct problems may affect outcomes. We searched 13 databases and 2 trials registers up to February 2022. Randomized controlled trials, in any setting, of children (2-12 years old) with conduct problems and within a pre-specified subgroup, comparing a personalised intervention with a non-personalised intervention, waitlist control or treatment as usual were included. Personalised intervention may improve child conduct problems or disruptive behaviour measured using the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) Problem subscale in the short term but may have little to no effect on improving child conduct problems or disruptive behaviour measured by the ECBI Intensity subscale or the Externalising subscale of the Child Behaviour Checklist in the short term. The certainty of evidence for all outcomes was graded as very low. In conclusion, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of personalised interventions for subgroups of children with conduct problems.