Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most prevalent birth defect of childhood, often requiring surgical intervention. Postoperatively, psychosocial health and neurodevelopmental delays remain a healthcare concern. While many factors were identified to contribute to these outcomes, overprotective parenting has been shown to have detrimental effects on children’s health. The aim of this review was to examine the relationship between overprotective parenting and child development and/or psychosocial health of children with CHD. A systematic review methodology was used and included Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Excerpta Medica Database, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, and PsycINFO databases. Studies were included if they examined the association between overprotective parenting and child development or psychosocial health. Articles were selected if they addressed psychosocial health, such as anxiety, depression, lifestyle, resilience, or self-management, or child development domains, which included outcomes such as cognitive, motor, language, behavioral, personal-social/adaptive, and attention/executive functions. Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) guidelines were used to assess the methodological quality of the studies. Nine articles were obtained for the final narrative analysis, with sample sizes ranging from 60 to 400 children with CHD and their parents. A negative relationship was found between overprotective parenting and motor developmental delay in children with CHD. Moreover, a strong association was found with behavioral and psychosocial health. However, studies did not assess all developmental domains and used different measures of parental overprotectiveness. Further longitudinal research is needed, and the assessment of children’s development, their psychosocial health, and their parenting style is recommended.
Avedissian et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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