<p><strong>CONTEXT: </strong>Parents may experience psychological distress when a child is acutely hospitalized, which can negatively affect child outcomes. Interventions designed to support parents' coping have the potential to mitigate this distress.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To describe interventions designed to provide coping support to parents of hospitalized children and conduct a meta-analysis of coping support intervention outcomes (parent anxiety, depression, and stress).</p>

<p><strong>DATA SOURCES: </strong>We searched Pubmed, Embase, PsycINFO, Psychiatry Online, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature from 1985 to 2016 for English-language articles including the concepts "pediatric," "hospitalization," "parents," and "coping support intervention."</p>

<p><strong>STUDY SELECTION: </strong>Two authors reviewed titles and abstracts to identify studies meeting inclusion criteria and reviewed full text if a determination was not possible using the title and abstract. References of studies meeting inclusion criteria were reviewed to identify additional articles for inclusion.</p>

<p><strong>DATA EXTRACTION: </strong>Two authors abstracted data and assessed risk of bias by using a structured instrument.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Initial searches yielded 3450 abstracts for possible inclusion. Thirty-two studies met criteria for inclusion in the systematic review and 12 studies met criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The most commonly measured outcomes were parent depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. In meta-analysis, combined intervention effects significantly reduced parent anxiety and stress but not depression. Heterogeneity among included studies was high.</p>

<p><strong>LIMITATIONS: </strong>Most included studies were conducted at single centers with small sample sizes.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Coping support interventions can alleviate parents' psychological distress during children's hospitalization. More evidence is needed to determine if such interventions benefit children.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Children and adolescents necessitating hospitalization for physical health conditions are at high risk for mental health conditions; however, the prevalence of mental health conditions and symptoms among hospitalized children and adolescents is uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of hospitalized children and adolescents who have diagnosed mental health disorders or undiagnosed mental health problems.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>In this single-center point prevalence study of hospitalized children between the ages of 4 and 21 years, patients or their parents reported known mental health diagnoses and use of services using the Services Assessment for Children and Adolescent, and they reported patient mental health symptoms using the Pediatric Symptom Checklist, 17-item form (PSC-17).</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Of 229 eligible patients, 119 agreed to participate. Demographic characteristics of patients who enrolled were not statistically significantly different from those of patients who declined to participate. Among participants, 26% (95% confidence interval [CI], 18%-35%) reported a known mental health diagnosis. On the PSC-17, 29% (95% CI, 21%-38%) of participants had a positive screen for mental health symptoms. Of those with a positive screen, 38% (95% CI, 21%-55%) had no known mental health diagnosis, and 26% (95% CI, 12%-43%) had not received ambulatory mental health services in the 12 months before hospitalization.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Mental health conditions and symptoms are common among patients hospitalized in a tertiary children's hospital, and many affected patients are not receiving ambulatory mental health services.</p>