What is the Reviews and Meta-Analyses Catalogue?

The Reviews and Meta-Analyses Catalogue is a collection of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (see definitions below) on the associations between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and various outcomes and risk factors for ACEs that have been the subject of multiple research studies. This Catalogue was created so that audiences of practitioners, policymakers, and the public could more efficiently gain an understanding of the state of research on a topic without having to read multiple studies. Researchers can use this Catalogue to find out which topics are in need of a first or updated systematic review or meta-analysis on a topic related to ACEs.

What is a systematic review and meta-analysis?

Systematic reviews use a detailed, comprehensive search strategy, often with the help of a professional librarian, to locate all the published studies on a particular topic. They then critically review each study to ensure it satisfies specific criteria to be included in the review, evaluate the quality of each study and estimate the likelihood of bias, and systematically synthesize the findings across studies to present general conclusions on the state of research for that topic. Meta-analysis is an analytical technique that is often used in systematic reviews. In addition to providing a qualitative synthesis of the research on a topic, meta-analysis combines numerical effect sizes across studies to estimate an overall effect size for the association between two variables.

How was the Reviews and Meta-Analysis Catalogue created?

The inaugural search for the catalogue was conducted in December of 2023. With the help of a professional librarian, we searched Medline, PsycINFO, and Embase for review articles (broadly defined) on the topic of ACEs. Articles underwent title and abstract screening based on these criteria: article is a (1) review or synthesis of a topic related at ACEs that; (2) assessed both maltreatment and household dysfunction; (3) in populations younger than the age of 18 years when they experienced the ACE; and is also (4) written in English; and (5) involves human subjects. Original research studies, commentaries, book reviews, editorials, and study protocols were excluded. Two reviewers completed the title and abstract screening; in cases of disagreement, a third reviewer was consulted until consensus was reached. Full-texts were assessed using the following additional criteria: article must (1) have employed a systematic search strategy that is clearly explained, including which databases were searched, the search terms used, and the inclusion/exclusion criteria used; and (2) prominently feature ACEs as the core topic. Therefore, full-texts were excluded if they were unsystematic literature reviews or reviews of broader topics that identified ACEs as a risk factor, moderator, or mediator. Article types included in the catalogue are:

  1. Systematic reviews
  2. Meta-analyses
  3. Narrative review
  4. Scoping reviews
  5. Umbrella reviews
  6. Meta-umbrella reviews
  7. Rapid Evidence Summaries
  8. Abstracts for the above article types (unless also published in a peer-reviewed journal)
  9. Theses and dissertations of the above article types (unless also published in a peer-reviewed journal).

How do I use the Reviews and Meta-Analyses Catalogue?

For your convenience, you can filter articles based on article type (see above for list of included article types) and if the full-text is freely available (i.e., open access).

The articles included in the Reviews and Meta-Analyses Catalogue are coded according to topic with the following broad categories:

  1. Demographic and Environmental Factors
  2. Mental Health
  3. Physical Health
  4. Development
  5. Cognitive Functioning
  6. Interpersonal Functioning
  7. Biological Functioning
  8. Affective Functioning
  9. Adaptive Functioning
  10. Parenting
  11. Pregnancy and Birth
  12. Risk Behaviors
  13. Intervention
  14. Screening and Assessment

The ACEs Hub data platform allows you to filter according to topic and subtopic.

Articles are also coded according to:

  1. The role of ACEs in the article (i.e., predictor, outcome, moderator, or other).
  2. The age of the population included in the review (i.e., child (0-12 years), adolescent (13-18 years), and/or adult (18+ years)).
  3. If the review focused on general or specific populations (e.g. clinical populations, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc.).
  4. If ACEs are examined within a single generation (i.e., examining effects of ACEs in individuals who experienced the ACEs directly) or across multiple generations (i.e., examining the effects of ACEs in individuals whose parents or other ancestors experienced the ACEs).

The map display can be used to visualise the country-level sample locations of the studies included in the reviews (when data was provided).