Research Review: Internalising symptoms in developmental coordination disorder: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Developmental coordination disorder (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content>) affects 5%–6% of children. There is growing evidence that <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content> is associated with greater levels of internalising symptoms (i.e. depression and anxiety). This is the first systematic review and meta‐analysis to explore the magnitude of this effect, the quality of the evidence and potential moderators.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>A systematic search was conducted to identify studies reporting a comparison between individuals with <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content>/probable <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content> and typically developing (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TD</jats:styled-content>) individuals on measures of internalising symptoms. A pooled effect size (Hedges <jats:italic>g</jats:italic>) was calculated using random‐effects meta‐analysis. Study quality, publication bias and potential moderators of the effect were explored.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Twenty studies, including a total of 23 subsamples, met the inclusion criteria, of which 22 subsamples were included in the meta‐analysis (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content>:<jats:italic> n</jats:italic> = 1123; <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TD</jats:styled-content>:<jats:italic> n</jats:italic> = 7346). A significant, moderate effect of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content> on internalising symptoms was found (<jats:italic>g </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>0.61). This effect remained robust after accounting for publication bias and excluding lower quality studies. The effect was significantly larger in studies utilising a cross‐sectional design (vs. longitudinal), convenience sampling (vs. population screening) and a majority male sample.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The findings demonstrate that individuals with <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content> experience greater levels of internalising symptoms than their peers. This highlights the importance of routine screening for emotional difficulties in <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content>, raising awareness of the condition in mental health services and developing psychosocial interventions that extend beyond a focus on motor impairments. However, there is a need for higher quality, longitudinal studies to better understand the causal relationship between <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">DCD</jats:styled-content> and internalising symptoms.</jats:p></jats:sec>