Identifying evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents using the range of possible changes model: A meta-analytic illustration

We are very grateful to Kelly D. Brownell, Julia Kim-Cohen, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, and Peter Salovey for extremely insightful discussions and commentaries on previous versions of this manuscript. We also thank Jennifer Thomas, Jessica Cronce, and Amelia Aldao for their careful and diligent participation as coders for this study. Please address correspondence to Andres De Los Reyes, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland at College Park, Biology/Psychology Building, Room 3123H, College Park, MD 20742; office: 301-405-7049; e-mail: adelosreyes@psyc.umd.edu.The article discusses a study involving a framework (range of possible changes [RPC] Model) developed and applied to identify patterns in consistent and inconsistent intervention outcomes effects by informant, measurement method, and method of statistical analysis to the meta-analytic study of trials testing two evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents (youth-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment for child anxiety problems; parent-focused behavioral parent training for childhood conduct problems). This article illustrates how findings gleaned from applying the RPC Model allow for unique opportunities for hypothesis generation based on the patterns of consistent outcomes effects. Based on the RPC Model, studies can be closely examined to identify the specific instances in which interventions yield robust effects, and the authors illustrate how examining effects in this way can lead to new understandings of interventions and the outcomes they produce. Findings suggest that researchers can employ previously underutilized patterns of consistencies and inconsistencies in outcomes effects as new resources for identifying evidence-based interventions.This work was supported, in part, by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH67540 (Andres De Los Reyes). This work was also supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH59029 (Alan E. Kazdin)