Lived experiences of parents providing care to young people who self-harm: a protocol for a meta-aggregative synthesis of qualitative studie

Introduction The self-harm of young people can cause tremendous distress to their parents/carers and impair parents' ability to provide care. At the same time, parents play an essential role in supporting their child during the management and treatment of self-harm. The synthesis of evidence about parental experiences and needs can inform mental health practice and the development of interventions to provide better care to young people who self-harm and their parents. Methods and analysis A comprehensive search will be conducted across several information sources, including multiple electronic databases (eg, PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ProQuest, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and SinoMed), grey literature, the websites of specific organisations and hand-searched reference lists of all the relevant studies. Qualitative studies published in English or Chinese and focusing on the lived experiences of parents whose child self-harms will be included. Two reviewers will independently screen all the retrieved articles according to the flow diagram proposed by PRISMA (the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). Two independent reviewers will then appraise the methodological quality of all the included articles using the JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research. The meta-aggregation approach will be used to synthesise the findings of the included qualitative studies, and the level of confidence in the synthesised findings will be assessed using the Confidence in the Qualitative synthesised finding approach. Ethics and dissemination No additional ethical clearance is required since this review is a secondary analysis of published primary studies. The findings will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal and conference presentations. PROSPERO registration number CRD42021265525.

Automated summary

This study aims to synthesize evidence on the experiences and needs of parents of young people who self-harm, in order to inform mental health practice and the development of interventions. Qualitative studies will be included, and the findings will be synthesized using a meta-aggregation approach to understand the challenges and needs of parents in caring for self-harming children. Assessing the confidence in the synthesized findings will help determine optimal care approaches and recommendations.