Geertjan Overbeek

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at University of Amsterdam

Background: We examined how estimates of parenting program effects on disruptive child behavior have evolved over time. In addition, we examined if any time trends in effect sizes can be explained by trial, sample, or intervention characteristics. Methods: We systematically searched 22 international and regional databases, grey literature, and 4 tr...

Harsh and unsupportive parenting is a risk factor for the development of disruptive behavior in children. However, little is known about how children’s temperament and stress reactivity influence this relation. In a three-wave longitudinal study, we examined whether the associations between parenting practices (supportive parenting, positive discip...

This study examined gene-environment (parenting) correlations as underlying mechanisms for disruptive child behavior. Polygenic scores for disruptive and externalizing behavior (PGS-DB and PGS-EXT) and parent-reported harsh and warm-supportive parenting were measured in 288 Dutch families with children (Mage = 6.26, SD = 1.31, 48% girls) with above...

Behavioral parenting programs, such as Incredible Years (IY), reduce conduct problems in children. However, conduct problems encompass many different behaviors, and little is known about the effects of parenting programs on specific aspects of children’s conduct problems, such as children’s relationships with others. The aim of this study was to ex...

This study investigated associations of the Incredible Years (IY) parenting program with children's DNA methylation. Participants were 289 Dutch children aged 3–9 years (75% European ancestry, 48% female) with above‐average conduct problems. Saliva was collected 2.5 years after families were randomized to IY or care as usual (CAU). Using an intenti...

High levels of effortful control have been shown to protect children from negative health outcomes following early adversity. In this study, we tested whether effortful control already moderates the effects of parenting stress on children’s cortisol levels in toddlerhood. In 31 families, parental reports of parenting stress and toddlers’ effortful...

Child temperament has long been viewed as a potential susceptibility factor in the link between parenting and child disruptive behavior (CDB). Specifically, the idea is that children with higher negative emotionality, surgency, and lower effortful control are more affected by their received parenting, but experimental evidence is scarce. Also, othe...

Self-regulation has been intensely studied across developmental science disciplines in virtue of its significance to understanding and fostering adaptive functioning throughout life. Whereas research has predominantly focused on self-regulatory abilities, age-related changes in goals and motivation that underlie self-regulation have been largely ne...

Introduction YouTube vloggers may be important socialization figures, yet their influence on adolescents' health‐related behaviors and cognitions is largely untested. In this two‐study mixed‐method project, we first assessed the extent of (non)compliance to COVID‐19 regulations by vloggers on YouTube and how viewers reacted to this. Second, we expe...

Refugee parents raise their adolescent children in a world that is different from the world they themselves grew up in, often experiencing postmigration stress. This may hamper parents' confidence in their parenting skills and make it difficult for them to grant adolescent children the autonomy they desire and need. In this preregistered study, we...

There is a long-standing debate on the goals that underlie adolescent socially coercive behaviors, such as bullying, relational aggression, and instrumental aggression. Knowledge about these goals is critical for the development of effective interventions. Bridging evolutionary and social-cognitive perspectives, we propose and substantiate a Social...

Programs that aim to reduce symptoms of social anxiety in children generally include multiple components, such as exposure and cognitive restructuring. It is unknown if separate components yield positive intervention effects in children or whether a combination of components is required. We investigated the effectiveness of exposure, cognitive rest...

An important question in mental healthcare for children is whether treatments are effective and safe in the long run. Here, we comment on a recent editorial perspective by Roest et al. (2022), who argue, based on an overview of systematic reviews, ‘that there is no convincing evidence that interventions for the most common childhood disorders are b...

This experimental study aimed to advance our understanding of parental negative attributions of children’s misbehavior (parental interpretations of what causes children’s misbehavior) and how they relate to other parental characteristics. Specifically, we examined: (1) How different measures of parental negative attributions relate to cognitive and...

Post-migration stress and parenting adolescents can reduce parental self-efficacy. This study tested the effects of strengthening parental self-efficacy in refugee parents of adolescents and whether this makes parental self-efficacy less impacted by post-migration stressors. Using a within-subject experimental design, experience sampling data w...

Background: The online mindset intervention The Growth Factory (TGF) has shown promising effects-increasing growth mindsets and perseverance and decreasing mental health problems among youth with intellectual disabilities (ID). Studying moderators and mediators of intervention effects is essential to elucidate for whom and why TGF works. Using a r...

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual pa...

Some adolescents may be more likely to be influenced by parents and peers in their development of externalizing behavior than others. Recent research indicates that sensory processing sensitivity may underlie such differences in sensitivity to environmental influences, and specifically that individuals with higher sensory processing sensitivity may...

Caregivers are often encouraged to praise children to reduce externalizing behavior. Although several theoretical perspectives suggest that praise works (e.g., praise reinforces positive behavior), others suggest it may not (e.g., children dismiss praise or experience it as controlling). This longitudinal-observational study examined whether (a) ca...

Objective: We examined parent reports of temper tantrum characteristics (e.g., frequency, duration, and behavioral profile) in toddlers and preschoolers and their longitudinal association with internalizing and externalizing adjustment problems. Methods: Parents of 1- to 5-year-olds (N = 861, Mage = 36 months, 47% girls) reported their child's t...

Behavioral parenting programs are a theory-driven and evidence-based approach for reducing disruptive child behavior. Although these programs are effective on average, they are not equally effective in all families. Decades of moderation research has yielded very few consistent moderators, and we therefore still have little knowledge of who benefit...

Caregivers are often encouraged to praise children to reduce externalizing behavior. Although several theoretical perspectives suggest that praise works (e.g., praise reinforces positive behavior), others suggest it may not (e.g., children dismiss praise or experience it as controlling). This longitudinal-observational study examined whether (1) ca...

Prior research has related children's prosocial behavior to overall well-being, and stimulating prosocial behavior is the aim of many social-emotional skills interventions. This study assessed if affirming children's autonomy stimulates their psychosocial behavior. We conducted a three-arm microtrial with four repeated measures to assess if a socia...

Alliance is a robust contributor to the outcome of adult, youth, and family therapy, but little is known about therapists’ contributions to the alliance in conjoint family treatment. We investigated the predictive value of therapists’ personality, clinical experience and observed alliance building behaviors for mid-treatment alliance as reported by...

Childhood conduct problems (eg, defiance, anger, and aggression) compromise child and family well-being and development.1 Evidence-based programs to support parents in managing children's conduct problems exist, but most families do not have access to these programs.2 Implementation costs, certification and supervision demands, and limited possibil...

Background: This study examines participant satisfaction and effectiveness of the online mindset intervention 'The Growth Factory' (TGF) for youth with intellectual disabilities using a randomised controlled trial design. Method: Youth with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (N = 119; 12-23 years) were randomly assigned to TGF (n = 60)...

This study is the first to distinguish two possible predictive directions between trauma exposure and executive functioning in children in a community sample. The sample consists of 1006 children from two time points with a seven years’ time interval of a longitudinal Dutch birth cohort study, the ABCD-study (Van Eijsden et al., 2011). We analyzed...

This qualitative study sheds light on how the different phases of refuge and resettlement shape parents' perceptions of their parenting. We used in-depth interviews to examine parents' accounts of how war and refuge gave rise to different stressors, and how these in turn shaped parenting. We interviewed 27 Syrian refugee parents recently settled in...

Many established parenting programs for children's conduct problems are delivered in groups. Various, and at times conflicting, beliefs exist about whether families fare better in groups with parents that are more similar to them, or in groups that are more diverse. We set out to test these beliefs empirically. We integrated data from four trials o...

The report provides an update on family mental health, child behavior, and parenting factors in The Netherlands during the pandemic for two age groups of children (6-11 and 12-17) both over time and in relation to term-time school closures. We also report on families’ worries about Covid-19 as well as how parents feel about schools reopening and wh...

In family treatment, building and evaluating multiple alliances with family members is complex. We investigated the occurrence and development of discrepancies between therapists' alliances with different family members, and therapists’ evaluation of these multiple alliances and discrepancies. Participants were 92 parents and 61 children and adoles...

Conduct problems can develop into behavior disorders and put children at risk for other mental health problems. Parenting interventions have been shown to successfully reduce conduct problems and are often expected to prevent the development of broader mental health problems. Few studies have evaluated the longer-term and broader effects of these i...

Objective: This study investigated how genetic susceptibility may affect children's sensitivity to parenting practices in their development of externalizing behavior. We created a continuous polygenic index composed of 5 dopamine polymorphisms to investigate the moderating role of dopamine-related genes in shaping parent-child gene-by-environment...

Social skills training (SST) programs for nonclinical children and adolescents are known to have positive effects on social skills, but it remains unclear how distinct training components are related to program effects. This multilevel meta-analysis examines how psychoeducation (i.e., exercises aimed at the transfer of knowledge), psychophysical co...

People who pursue approach goals (i.e., desired outcomes to be reached) tend to be more likely to achieve their goals than people who pursue avoidance goals (i.e., undesired outcomes to be prevented). We tested this premise in a brief preventive parenting intervention targeting parental praise to reduce disruptive child behavior. We also tested whe...

Objectives Accumulating research provides support for differential susceptibility, which holds that the same children who are most vulnerable to adversity, such as negative parenting, may also benefit most from enriched environments, such as positive parenting. This “for better and for worse” phenomenon is believed to be rooted in endogenous, biolo...

Western societies offer children many opportunities for downward social comparisons (i.e., comparing oneself favorably to others). Such comparisons make children feel proud of themselves, but could inadvertently trigger a desire to be superior to others. How can children be made to feel proud without triggering a desire for superiority? We hypothes...

Objective: This study aimed to explore which topics intended parents who opt for donor sperm treatment find relevant to discuss in psychosocial counselling. Background: The choice for donor sperm treatment has psychosocial implications for intended parents and therefore psychosocial counselling is advised as an integral part of DST. To date, little...

Most interventions aimed at improving social interactions either target internalising or externalising problem behaviour in children. However, a recent review shows that a transdiagnostic approach might fit better to the diversity of problems within a group and within an individual (comorbidity). We examined the effectiveness of a transdiagnostic i...

Same-sex sexual attraction and gender non-conformity: The influence of parent acceptance The current study assessed, separately for boys and girls, the moderating effects of mother/father acceptance in the relationship of same-sex attraction (SSA) and gender nonconformity with psychological distress and social anxiety. Data were collected from 1,12...

Children vary in the extent to which they benefit from parenting programs for conduct problems. How does parental mental health change if children benefit less or more? We assessed whether changes in conduct problems and maternal depressive symptoms co-occur following participation in the Incredible Years parenting program. We integrated individual...

There is growing evidence that exposure to nature, as opposed to a built environment, is associated with better health. Specifically in children, more exposure to nature seems to be associated with better cognitive, affective, and behavioral self-regulation. Because studies are scattered over different scientific disciplines, it is difficult to cre...

We tested whether neighborhood greenness is a promotive and/or a protective factor in the development of adolescent externalizing behavior problems and explored a possible mechanism of its effects via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) recovery after stress. Data from a longitudinal multi-method study on adolescents (N = 715) was used. Result showe...

In dit onderzoek toetsen we twee hypothesen over de rol van seksuele opvoeding in de ontwikkeling van seksualiteit en seksueel expliciete mediaconsumptie tijdens de adolescentie. De bufferhypothese stelt dat een actieve mediaopvoeding door ouders het effect van seksueel expliciete mediaconsumptie op seksuele attituden en gedrag van adolescenten buf...

Among 2,185 Dutch adolescents (ages 11 to 18), we assessed whether the association among gender nonconformity, homophobic name-calling, and other general peer victimization differs for boys and girls and for youth with and without same-sex attraction (SSA). We also examined whether sex and sexual attraction differences in the association between ge...

This mixed methods systematic review and meta-analysis sheds more light on the role parenting practices play in children's adjustment after war exposure. Specifically, we quantitatively examined whether parenting behavior explained some of the well-known associations between war exposure and children's adjustment. In addition, we meta-synthesized q...

Objective: Parenting programs are the recommended strategy for the prevention and treatment of disruptive child behavior. Similar to most psychosocial interventions, it is unknown which components of parenting programs (ie, parenting techniques taught) actually contribute to program effects. Identifying what parents need to be taught to reduce dis...

Objective: Families with disruptive child behavior are typically referred to services based on children's behavior alone, rather than on underlying mechanisms of disruptive behavior. Yet, the presence of the precise mechanisms targeted by services might be essential for intervention success. We integrated person- and variable-centered approaches t...

Background Adolescents with intellectual disabilities have an increased risk of developing academic, social, and psychological problems compared with non-disabled peers. These difficulties might have an impact on the implicit theories—or so called mindset—of these youth. Youth with a fixed mindset believe that their attributes are static while yout...

Disruptive child behavior is often exacerbated and maintained by negative and inconsistent parenting behavior that unwittingly reinforces disruptive behavior. One explanation for why parents render it difficult to remain positive and consistent might be the impact of disruptive child behavior on parent self-efficacy and stress. This study investiga...

Background What are the parenting behaviors that shape child compliance? Most research on parent-child interactions relies on correlational research or evaluations of “package deal” interventions that manipulate many aspects of parenting at the same time. Neither approach allows for identifying the specific parenting behaviors that shape child comp...

Additional search strategy for disentangling trials. (DOCX)

References of included studies. (DOCX)

General search strategy. (DOCX)

Coding scheme for classifying parenting behaviors. (DOCX)

Excluded studies and reasons for exclusion. (DOCX)

Coding scheme for classifying outcome measures. (DOCX)

In their commentary, Beauchaine and Slep (2018) raise important issues regarding research on behavioral parenting training (BPT). In this reply we highlight key points of agreement and respond to issues that we feel require clarification. BPT has been repeatedly proven effective in decreasing disruptive child behavior (also in the work of our resea...

Deze studie onderzoekt of de preventieve variant van de ouderinterventie Pittige Jaren (in het Engels The Incredible Years; IY) effectief is in het verminderen van externaliserende gedragsproblemen en of veronderstelde moderatoren (d.w.z., ernst van probleemgedrag bij aanvang van de interventie, geslacht kind, sociaaleconomische status, gezinssamen...

One main source of sexual socialization lies within family interactions. Especially sexuality-specific parenting may determine adolescents’ sexual development—adolescents’ sexual behavior and sexual risk behavior, sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes—to a significant extent, but different ideas exist about how this works. In...

The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) is one of the most widely used and well-validated parent rating scales for children’s disruptive behavior. This screening instrument is a short, targetted and easy to implement inventory with good psychometric properties and is normed for different countries, among which the United States, Spain, Sweden an...

Alliance has been shown to predict treatment outcome in family-involved treatment for youth problems in several studies. However, meta-analytic research on alliance in family-involved treatment is scarce, and to date, no meta-analytic study on the alliance–outcome association in this field has paid attention to moderating variables. We included 28...

An earlier meta-analysis and review indicated that trauma exposure may be related to lower levels of executive functioning in youth. Since different developmental trajectories were found for three core executive functions, the present study focused on working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility specifically. We conducted a multi-level met...

Parenting programs for reducing disruptive child behavior are built on two main perspectives: relationship enhancement (i.e., unconditional sensitivity diminishes disruptiveness) and behavior management (i.e., conditional rewards diminish disruptiveness). Two meta-analyses (156 and 41 RCTs; Ntotal = 15,768; Mchildage = 1-11 years) tested the theore...

This study examined parent-observer discrepancies in assessments of negative child behavior and negative parenting behavior to shed more light on correlates with these discrepancies. Specifically, we hypothesized that informant discrepancy between observers and parents on child behavior would be larger when parents reported high levels of negative...

Pleegkinderen die door ernstige gedragsproblemen in conflict komen met hun pleegouders hebben een verhoogde kans het pleeggezin voortijdig te verlaten. Dat schaadt hun ontwikkelingskansen. Hoe ondersteun je pleegouders het best in hun omgang met deze problemen?

This study aimed to validate a Religious Collective Self-Esteem Scale (RCSES) that assesses children’s evaluations and judgments about their belonging to a religious group. The RCSES includes 3 subscales: Private Religious Self-Esteem (PrRSE), Public Religious Self-Esteem (PuRSE), and Importance to Religious Identity (RI). Data were gathered from s...

The current study examined the relations between observed normativity and deviance during adolescents' and young adults' conversations about sex with their friends and their individual perceptions of sexual peer norms. Participants were 16-21-year-old same-sex friendship dyads (31 male and 30 female dyads) who performed a peer interaction task that...

PurposeIn this study, we examined whether there is a mediating role of executive function (EF) in the relationship between trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress in youth. Methods Children and adolescents exposed to trauma were recruited at an academic center for child psychiatry in The Netherlands. The total sample consisted of 119 children from...

The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to investigate the strength of the association between parent-reported and observed parenting, and to investigate which specific characteristics of participants, questionnaires, or observational procedures moderate this association. A systematic search of relevant peer-reviewed articles published between...

Recent research suggests that children’s heightened susceptibility to parenting may have a (poly)genetic basis, and may be grounded in children’s temperament. However, much current evidence is of a preliminary—correlational—nature. Because in correlational designs alternative explanations for gene–environment (G × E) or temperament–environment (T ×...

In a randomized controlled trial, the Observational Randomized Controlled Trial of Childhood Differential Susceptibility (ORCHIDS study), we tested whether observed parental affect and observed and reported parenting behavior are mechanisms of change underlying the effects of the behavioral parent training program the Incredible Years (IY). Further...

The present randomized controlled trial examined the effectiveness of Parent Management Training Oregon for foster parents with foster children (aged 4–12) with severe externalizing behavior problems in long-term foster care arrangements. Foster children’s behavior problems are challenging for foster parents and increase the risk of placement break...

This study investigated whether children scoring higher on a polygenic plasticity index based on five dopaminergic genes (DRD4, DRD2, DAT1, MAOA, and COMT) benefited the most from the Incredible Years (IY) parent program. Data were used from a randomized controlled trial including 341 Dutch families with 4- to 8-year-old children (55.7% boys) showi...

We tested the effectiveness of the preventive behavioral parent training (BPT) The Incredible Years (IY) and the independent effects of previously suggested sociodemographic and intervention-based moderator variables (i.e., initial severity of externalizing problem behavior, child gender, social economic status, family composition, and number of se...

We assessed among a sample of 724 Dutch lesbian, gay, and bisexual-identified adults (Mage = 31.42) whether experiences with homophobic stigmatization and internalized homophobia simultaneously mediated the relation of gender nonconformity with mental health. Results indicated that homophobic stigmatization and internalized homophobia partially med...

In dit boek zijn artikelen en columns van het eind 2015 verschenen lustrumnummer van het tijdschrift Kind en Adolescent opgenomen waarin wordt teruggeblikt op 35 jaar ontwikkeling en onderzoek in de pedagogische, psychiatrische en psychologische praktijk rondom kinderen en jeugdigen. Het voortschrijdend inzicht bestaat uit zowel betere onderbouwing...

Over the last decade, several candidate genes (i.e., MAOA, DRD4, DRD2, DAT1, 5-HTTLPR, and COMT) have been extensively studied as potential moderators of the detrimental effects of postnatal family adversity on child externalizing behaviors, such as aggression and conduct disorder. Many studies on such candidate gene by environment interactions (i....

Background There is increasing evidence that variation in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene SLC6A4 (i.e., the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism) moderates the impact of environmental stressors on child psychopathology. Emotional reactivity −the intensity of an individual’s response to other’s emotions− has been put forward as a possible mec...

Gene by environment (G x E) research has been increasingly appreciated as it relates to the development of psychopathology. In particular, interactions between dopaminergic genotypes and maladaptive parenting have been prominently in the spotlight. In this study, we investigated whether high parental psychological control and low support would be d...

Until recently, most developmental scientists focused on dysfunctional parenting and problem behaviour in children and adolescents. Because of this dominant focus on the question of which children suffer more from stressful conditions, we have not accounted for the possibility that these same – vulnerable – children may also reap more benefit from...