Abstract
A third of adolescents aged 11 to 19 years report depression symptoms, yet many go undiagnosed or do not receive timely treatment. Those who do seek support often face barriers including stigma and long waiting times, resulting in a significant needs-access gap for adolescents looking to access treatment for depression. Parents play a central role in recognizing adolescents’ symptoms and seeking treatment for them. To deepen the understanding on how to better support parents to support their adolescent child, this meta-synthesis aimed to systematically review qualitative studies on parents’ lived experiences of having an adolescent with depression. A pre-planned systematic search using five databases identified 25 papers meeting full inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and a thematic synthesis was conducted using NVivo, with reporting following PRISMA guidelines. Six themes were generated: (1) How do you know when your adolescent has depression?; (2) Understanding the causes of adolescent depression; (3) Emotional turbulence in parents; (4) Effects on the whole family; (5) Experiences with help-seeking; and (6) Stigma and judgment from others. The findings collectively highlight the need for increased parental involvement in professional treatment provision for adolescent depression, alongside better support for parents’ own wellbeing, and improved access to psychoeducation and parent-directed interventions for adolescents with depression.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | BMC Psychology |
| Early online date | 9 Jan 2026 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 9 Jan 2026 |
Data Availability Statement
Secondary data from individual papers were analysed. These can be accessed through the reference provided for the included papers.Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Justin Hodds for helping them develop the literature search strategy as the University of Bath subject librarian for the Department of Psychology. The authors also very much appreciate the efforts of Christy Chiu, Libby Last, Theodora Fung, Suzanne Human and Amber Gardner who supported paper screening and data extraction.Funding
Professor Maria Loades (Advanced Fellowship, 302929) is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) for this research project. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, NHS or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.