Abstract
Supervised practice pairs behavioral rehearsal (i.e., the practice of skills) with constructive and supportive feedback so that learners can enact new skills accurately and develop the motivation to consistently apply these skills. The current review study takes stock of the literature on supervised practice through second-order meta-analysis, a rigorous quantitative method used to aggregate overall effects from previous meta-analyses. Results from five meta-analyses revealed a significant overall effect of supervised practice compared to unsupervised practice (SMD = 0.22). Youth outcome type significantly moderated the effects of supervised practice, with internalizing behavior yielding the largest effect. Findings suggest that providing opportunities for supervised practice has the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of a range of skills-based interventions. Implications for supervised practice are discussed, including as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral interventions and a valuable role for volunteers and other paraprofessionals in their delivery of research supported care.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Adalbjarnardottir, S. (1993). Promoting children’s social growth in the schools: An intervention study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14(4), 461–484. https://doi.org/10.1016/0193-3973(93)90002-D
Alvord, M. K., & Grados, J. J. (2005). Enhancing resilience in children: A proactive approach. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36(3), 238.
Andzik, N. R., & Schaefer, J. M. (2019). Pre-service teacher-delivered behavioral skills training: A pyramidal training approach. Behavioral Interventions, 35(1), 99–113.
Arendt, K., Thastum, M., & Hougaard, E. (2016). Homework adherence and cognitive behaviour treatment outcome for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 44(2), 225–235.
Arnett, J. J. (2014). Emerging adulthood: The winding road from the late teens through the twenties. Oxford University Press.
Assink, M., & Wibbelink, C. J. (2016). Fitting three-level meta-analytic models in R: A step-by-step tutorial. The Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 12(3), 154–174.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice Hall.
Bernstein, E. E., Phillips, K. A., Greenberg, J. L., Curtiss, J., Hoeppner, S. S., & Wilhelm, S. (2021). Mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy effects on symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder: A network intervention analysis. Psychological Medicine, 1–9.
Blonk, R., Prins, P., Sergeant, J., Ringrose, J., & Brinkman, A. (1996). Cognitive-behavioral group therapy for socially incompetent children: Short-term and maintenance effects with a clinical sample. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 25(2), 215.
Boritz, T., McMain, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2023). Deliberate practice in dialectical behavior therapy (pp. 11–222). American Psychological Association.
Cheung, M.W.-L. (2014). Modeling dependent effect sizes with three-level meta-analyses: A structural equation modeling approach. Psychological Methods, 19(2), 211–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032968
Christensen, K. M., Kremer, K. P., Poon, C. Y. S., & Rhodes, J. E. (2023). A meta-analysis of the effects of after-school programmes among youth with marginalized identities. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology.
Compeau, D. R., & Higgins, C. A. (1995). Application of social cognitive theory to training for computer skills. Information Systems Research, 6, 118–143.
Conley, C., Durlak, J., & Kirsch, A. (2015). A Meta-analysis of universal mental health prevention programs for higher education students. Prevention Science, 16(4), 487–507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0543-1
Conley, C. S., Shapiro, J. B., Kirsch, A. C., & Durlak, J. A. (2017). A meta-analysis of indicated mental health prevention programs for at-risk higher education students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 121.
Cooper, H., Hedges, L. V., & Valentine, J. C. (Eds.). (2019). The handbook of research synthesis and meta-analysis. Russell Sage Foundation.
Cooper, H., & Koenka, A. C. (2012). The overview of reviews: Unique challenges and opportunities when research syntheses are the principal elements of new integrative scholarship. American Psychologist, 67(6), 446–462. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027119
Domitrovich, C. E., Cortes, R. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (2007). Improving young children’s social and emotional competence: A randomized trial of the preschool “PATHS” curriculum. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 28(2), 67–91.
Duke, A. A., Smith, K. M., Oberleitner, L., Westphal, A., & McKee, S. A. (2018). Alcohol, drugs, and violence: A meta-meta-analysis. Psychology of Violence, 8(2), 238.
Durlak, J. A., & DuPre, E. P. (2008). Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3–4), 327–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-008-9165-0
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432.
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents. American Journal of Community Psychology, 45(3–4), 294–309.
Elliott, S. N., Frey, J. R., & Davies, M. (2015). Systems for assessing and improving students’ social skills to achieve academic competence. In J. A. Durlak, C. E. Domitrovich, R. P. Weissberg, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), Handbook of social and emotional learning: Research and practice (pp. 301–319). Guilford.
Galindo, E., Candeias, A. A., Pires, H. S., Gracio, L., & Stuck, M. (2018). Behavioral skills training in portuguese children with school failure problems. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 437.
Gresham, F. M. (1995). Best practices in social skills training. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology-III (pp. 1021–1030). National Association of School Psychologists.
Grissom, R. J., & Kim, J. J. (2005). Effect sizes for research: A broad practical approach. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Glass, G. V. (1976). Primary, secondary, and meta-analysis of research. Educational Researcher, 5(10), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X005010003
Goldstein, A. P., & Sorcher, M. (1974). Changing supervisor behavior. Pergamon.
Gottfredson, D. C., Cook, T. D., Gardner, F. E. M., Gorman-Smith, D., Howe, G. W., Sandler, I. N., & Zafft, K. M. (2015). Standards of evidence for efficacy, effectiveness, and scale-up research in prevention science: Next generation. Prevention Science, 16, 893–926. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0555-x
Hinshaw, S. P. (2006). Treatment for children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Child and Adolescent Therapy: Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures, 3, 82–113.
Hox, J. (2002). Multilevel Analysis Techniques and Applications. New Jersey (US) Lawrence Erlbaum associates.
January, A. M., Casey, R. J., & Paulson, D. (2011). A meta-analysis of classroom-wide interventions to build social skills: Do they work? School Psychology Review, 40(2), 242–256.
Kazantzis, N., & Ronan, K. R. (2006). Can between-session (homework) activities be considered a common factor in psychotherapy? Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, 16(2), 115–127.
Kazdin, A. E., & Blase, S. L. (2011). Rebooting psychotherapy research and practice to reduce the burden of mental illness. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393527
Kendall, P. C., & Zupan, B. A. (1981). Individual versus group application of cognitive-behavioral self-control procedures with children. Behavior Therapy, 12(3), 344–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(81)80123-2
Knapp, G., & Hartung, J. (2003). Improved tests for a random effects meta-regression with a single covariate. Statistics in Medicine, 22(17), 2693–2710.
Kumm, S., Reeder, J., & Farrell, E. (2021). Social skills practice strategy opportunities for students with EBD. Beyond Behavior, 30(2), 97–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/10742956211020832
Laugeson, E. A., Frankel, F., Mogil, C., & Dillon, A. R. (2009). Parent-assisted social skills training to improve friendships in teens with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(4), 596–606.
Laugeson, E. A., & Park, M. N. (2014). Using a CBT approach to teach social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and other social challenges: The PEERS® method. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 32(1), 84–97.
Leaf, J. B., Townley-Cochran, D., Taubman, M., Cihon, J. H., Oppenheim-Leaf, M. L., Kassardjian, A., & Pentz, T. G. (2015). The teaching interaction procedure and behavioral skills training for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: A review and commentary. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2(4), 402–413.
Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (2001). Practical meta-analysis. SAGE publications Inc.
Mingebach, T., Kamp-Becker, I., Christiansen, H., & Weber, L. (2018). Meta-meta-analysis on the effectiveness of parent-based interventions for the treatment of child externalizing behavior problems. PLoS ONE, 13(9), e0202855.
Mokrue, K., Elias, M. J., & Bry, B. H. (2005). Dosage effect and the efficacy of a video-based teamwork-building series with urban elementary school children. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 21(1), 67–97.
Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2013). Teaching practitioners to conduct behavioral skills training: A pyramidal approach for training multiple human service staff. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 6(2), 4–16.
Payton, J. W., Wardlaw, D. M., Graczyk, P. A., Bloodworth, M. R., Tompsett, C. J., & Weissberg, R. P. (2000). Social and emotional learning: A framework for promoting mental health and reducing risk behavior in children and youth. Journal of School Health, 70(5), 179–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2000.tb06468.x
R Development Core Team (2015) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.
Raposa, E. B., Rhodes, J. E., Stams, G. J. J. M., Card, N., Burton, S., Schwartz, S. E., Sykes, L. A., Kanchewa, S., Kupersmidt, J., & Hussain, S. (2019). The effects of youth mentoring programs: A meta-analysis of outcome studies. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 423–443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00982-8
Reid, G., Grills, A., Mian, N. D., Reid, A. A., Merson, R., & Langer, D. (2017). Using research-informed pedagogical practices to maximize learning in youth cognitive behavioral therapy. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2(2), 82–95.
Salas, E., & Cannon-Bowers, J. A. (2001). The science of training: A decade of progress. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 471–499.
Schäfer, J. Ö., Naumann, E., Holmes, E. A., Tuschen-Caffier, B., & Samson, A. C. (2017). Emotion regulation strategies in depressive and anxiety symptoms in youth: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(2), 261–276.
Schmidt, F. L., & Oh, I. S. (2013). Methods for second order meta-analysis and illustrative applications. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 121(2), 204–218.
Simonsmeier, B. A., Flaig, M., Simacek, T., & Schneider, M. (2021). What sixty years of research says about the effectiveness of patient education on health: A second order meta-analysis. Health Psychology Review, 16(3), 450–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2021.1967184
Singla, D. R., Kohrt, B. A., Murray, L. K., Anand, A., Chorpita, B. F., & Patel, V. (2017). Psychological treatments for the world: Lessons from low- and middle-income countries. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 13, 149–181.
Taylor, P. J., Russ-Eft, D. F., & Chan, D. W. (2005). A meta-analytic review of behavior modeling training. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 692.
Van den Noortgate, W., López-López, J. A., Marín-Martínez, F., & Sanchez Meca, J. (2013). Three-level meta-analysis of dependent effect sizes. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 576–594. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0261-6
Van den Noortgate, W., López-López, J. A., Marín-Martínez, F., & Sanchez Meca, J. (2014). Meta-analysis of multiple outcomes: A multilevel approach. Behavior Research Methods, 47, 1274–1294. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0527-2
Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting Meta-Analyses in R with the metafor Package. Journal of Statistical Software, 36(3), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v036.i03
Weisz, J. R., Krumholz, L. S., Santucci, L., Thomassin, K., & Ng, M. Y. (2015). Shrinking the gap between research and practice: Tailoring and testing youth psychotherapies in clinical care contexts. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11, 139–163.
Weisz, J. R., Kuppens, S., Ng, M. Y., Eckshtain, D., Ugueto, A. M., Vaughn-Coaxum, R., & Weersing, V. R. (2017). What five decades of research tells us about the effects of youth psychological therapy: A multilevel meta-analysis and implications for science and practice. American Psychologist, 72(2), 79.
Weisz, J. R., Sandler, I. N., Durlak, J. A., & Anton, B. S. (2005). Promoting and protecting youth mental health through evidence-based prevention and treatment. American Psychologist, 60(6), 628.
Weisz, J. R., Weiss, B., Alicke, M. D., & Klotz, M. L. (1987). Effectiveness of psychotherapy with children and adolescents: A meta-analysis for clinicians. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(4), 542.
Werntz, A., Amando, S., Jasman, M., Ervin, A., & Rhodes, H. (2023). Providing human support for the use of digital mental health interventions: Systematic meta-review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e42864.
Young, D. G. (2019). Supervised practice experiences and professional preparation of graduates from student affairs master’s programs. Journal of College Student Development, 60(3), 290–306.
Funding
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
Due to the nature of the manuscript (i.e., systematic review and second-order meta-analysis), the study was granted exemption by the University of Massachusetts Boston Institutional Review Board and the authors certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Christensen, K.M., Assink, M., van Dam, L. et al. Youth Interventions With and Without Supervised Practice: A Second-Order Meta-Analysis. Child Adolesc Soc Work J (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-023-00921-4
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-023-00921-4