Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Teacher Delivered Interventions for Externalizing Behaviors
Teacher-run behavior plans give small, steady drops in disruptive behavior and ADHD symptoms without pulling kids from class.
01Research in Context
What this study did
van der Miesen et al. (2024) pooled every trial they could find where teachers, not clinicians, ran behavior plans for disruptive kids.
The team looked at kids with ADHD and other acting-out disorders in regular school settings.
They used meta-analysis to average the results across many small studies.
What they found
Teacher-led plans cut externalizing behaviors and ADHD symptoms a small but real amount.
Teachers also got better at classroom management and felt closer to their students.
The gains were modest, yet they showed up again and again across studies.
How this fits with other research
Kok et al. (2026) saw the same small drop in acting-out, but noticed the gains faded once sessions stopped. R et al. agree the drop is small, yet show teachers can keep it going inside daily class routines.
Lawson et al. (2025) built a ready-made toolkit so teachers can hit the ground running. Their pilot backs up R’s finding: when teachers use the tools, fidelity climbs even if student scores bounce around.
Lee et al. (2012) found parent training gives bigger immediate child gains. R et al. show teacher training gives smaller but school-friendly gains, so you don’t have to pick one—use both.
Why it matters
You can train teachers in one PD day and see calmer rooms all year. Pair the teacher plan with parent training for the biggest punch, and keep booster check-ins so the wins don’t fade.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis explores the effectiveness of teacher interventions supporting children with externalizing behaviors based on teacher and child outcomes. A systematic search was conducted using 5 electronic databases. From 5714 papers, 31 papers that included interventions delivered directly to teachers and aimed to benefit either teachers and/or children with externalizing behaviors were included. The review focused on qualified teachers working with children aged 2-13. The results of the current meta-analysis revealed a positive effect of teacher intervention on teacher and child outcomes, including the increased use of teacher-appropriate strategies, as well as significant and moderate improvements in teacher-child closeness, and small reductions in teacher-child conflict. For child outcomes, the interventions reduced externalizing behavior problems and ADHD symptoms and enhanced prosocial behavior. Only one fully blinded analysis for conduct problems was possible and revealed a moderate but significant reduction in favor of intervention. These findings provide evidence to support the role of teacher interventions for both teachers and children with externalizing behaviors. Future research should include more PBLIND measurements so that MPROX findings can be confirmed. More research should be done to evaluate the influence of teacher interventions on teachers' well-being.
, 2024 · doi:10.1007/s10864-022-09491-4