Editorial: Integrating multilevel environmental influences on child brain development

Environmental influences on child brain development operate across multiple levels of context, including family, neighbourhood and broader structural environments. While developmental cognitive neuroscience has generated substantial evidence linking proximal experiences to neurodevelopment, neighbourhood and especially macrolevel structural influences remain less well-integrated into prevailing models. In this editorial, we argue for a multilevel developmental framework that considers the independent and interactive effects of environmental factors across contexts and how their influence changes over development. We highlight evidence that proximal, neighbourhood and structural conditions each contribute to neurodevelopment and that their effects are often interdependent. Advancing the field will require greater integration across levels of analysis to better understand how environments shape brain and behaviour development.