“Between challenges and opportunities”: needs and preferences in the psychosocial support of multi-challenged families with children – a scoping review

• Families value having a professional who provides continuous and coordinated support, enhancing interprofessional collaboration. • Active listening, mutual respect, and follow-up support are crucial for successful interventions and meaningful family engagement. • Children’s involvement in intervention and progress assessment is encouraged through age-appropriate, play-based approaches. • Families benefit from flexible, collaboratively designed strategies that build skills (e.g., communication, problem-solving) and foster family resilience. This scoping review synthesizes the self-reported needs, preferences, and experiences of multi-challenged families with children regarding psychosocial support interventions. Using the Population–Concept–Context (PCC) framework and Arksey and O’Malley’s methodology, a systematic search was conducted in Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest, and ERIC for peer-reviewed studies from 2013 to 2025. Eligible studies focused on families facing multiple long-term difficulties with children up to 18 years old and explored family perspectives on psychosocial care. The review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines for transparency and rigor. Ten studies met inclusion criteria. Thematic analysis identified insights across three domains: intervention content, delivery approaches, and intervention context and structure. Key findings highlight the importance of contextual factors, especially home-based care, valued for accessibility, personalization, and support of daily routines. Results emphasize the need for coordinated, flexible, strengths-based support that respects family agency and addresses contextual barriers. Engaging children directly with age-appropriate, playful methods enhances their participation and expression. Training families in assertiveness, communication, and problem-solving emerged as essential for empowerment and intervention success. These findings underscore aligning professional practices with the lived realities and voices of multi-challenged families. Future research should prioritize participatory methodologies involving both families and children in the co-design and evaluation of interventions to enhance relevance, responsiveness, and effectiveness.