Abstract
This narrative review aims to identify caregiver factors that influence children’s trauma treatment process and outcomes and to explore areas for future research. It reviews 29 studies published between 1996 and 2018 identified based on a search of the PsycINFO database and reference review and organizes identified caregiver factors into factors that influence treatment engagement, treatment process, and treatment outcomes in a conceptual model. The results suggest caregiver motivation and caregivers’ influences on the child’s symptom presentation may impact initial treatment engagement. Treatment process appears to be impacted by caregiver demographics; caregiver trauma exposure; caregiver functioning; caregiver participation in treatment; and the therapeutic relationship. Treatment outcomes appear to be impacted by caregiver support of the child during treatment and caregiver functioning. Caregiver factors, as measured in the extant literature base, generally seem to have the potential to positively impact children’s trauma treatment. Exceptions to this are when caregivers experience challenges supporting their child or their child’s treatment. Additionally, several limitations are noted in the current literature. Namely, there is a lack of consistent operationalization of caregiver factors and types of caregiver participation, and the role of culture and diversity variables in caregivers’ engagement in children’s trauma treatment is understudied.