BackgroundRefugees' parenting behaviour is profoundly influenced by their mental health, which is, in turn, influenced by the situation of displacement. Our research presents the first systematic review to comprehensively capture the literature on parenting and mental health in protracted refugee situations, where 78 % of all refugees exist. MethodsWe pre-registered our protocol and screened documents in 22 languages from 10 electronic databases, reports by 16 international humanitarian organisations and region-specific content from the top 100 websites for each of the 72 countries that ‘host’ protracted refugees. Our criteria were empirical papers reporting parenting and parental mental health data on refugees who are in a protracted refugee situation. Studies including only internally displaced or stateless persons were excluded. ResultsA total of 18,125 documents were screened and 30 studies were included. Our analyses of this literature suggested that the ongoing macro-level stressors in protracted refugee situations, such as movement restrictions and documentation issues, universally affect refugees, leading to symptoms of depression and anxiety that predicated negative parenting practices. Cultural-specific pathways were observed in parental mental health expression through substance abuse and in parenting through the concealment of emotional distress. Situational (e.g., overcrowding) and relational factors (e.g., spousal dynamics) modulated both of these pathways. Few studies have explored how posttraumatic stress symptoms affect parenting in this context, but available evidence suggests that ongoing stressors have a more significant impact. Biases in the research included the over-representation of specific protracted refugee situations, overreliance on self-reported data, and a heavy focus on mothers while neglecting fathers and other caregivers. Longitudinal research is also needed to clarify the directionality and causality between specific macro-level stressors in a given protracted refugee situation and parental mental health and practices. One major shortcoming in the quality of evidence was that refugees were rarely consulted or involved in the design of research about their parenting and parental mental health. ConclusionIn recognising the existing links between protracted refugee situations, parental mental health, parenting, our systematic review calls for a shift from focusing solely on micro aspects contributing to ‘refugee parenting’ to understanding and tackling the broader macro-level stressors that drive them. We urge for larger and long-term research efforts that consider diverse protracted refugee situations, greater investment in science communication and diplomacy with governments, and stronger implementation of durable solutions by states to alleviate the roots of refugee parents' distress and negative parenting practices.