Editorial: When children also shape the family environment

Abstract

Family research in child and adolescent mental health has often been framed as if influence runs mainly from adults to children. Bjørndal et al. provide a timely corrective. Using longitudinal network models that separate within-person from between-person associations, they show that adolescent mental health difficulties and family dynamics are interrelated over time, and that emotional symptoms may precede later hyperactivity/inattention and sibling problems. Their findings also point to reinforcing loops within the family system, particularly between low family support and negative feelings towards the family. This matters because family members are not merely environmental exposures; they are genetically correlated social environments, and children can shape parental and sibling dynamics as well as be shaped by them. Distinguishing between variables with stronger outgoing and ingoing influence may help refine which intervention hypotheses should be prioritized, and which should be discarded or treated more cautiously.