Family dynamics on mental health: a network analysis

The dynamic relationships between children's, parents', and siblings' mental health have yet to be systematically explored. The present study employed network analysis to investigate concurrent and longitudinal associations of mental health symptoms in children during early childhood and their parents and siblings. A total of 3750 cohort members (47.9% female; Mage = 3.1 at T1), along with their mothers, fathers, and older siblings from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), were assessed for mental health problems at two waves spaced two years apart. Contemporaneous networks revealed extensive associations between intra-individual and inter-individual symptoms within the family. The older siblings' symptoms were the strongest bridging symptoms connecting to their younger siblings. Temporal networks demonstrated directional effects from parent to child, father to mother, and older sibling to younger sibling. Maternal depressive feelings exhibited the strongest predictive effect in the family network. Overall, our findings suggest the spillover effect of mental health problems within families, underscoring the need to consider the psychological symptoms of other family members when treating individual symptoms.