Editorial: Reciprocal Causality in Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

The question of whether family dysfunction predates or is a consequence of individual psychopathology is almost as old as the mind-body problem. In traditional family systems views, individual psychopathology emerges from pathology in the family as a whole and is best alleviated by treating the familial context. Medical models view family system disturbances as reflecting caregiver distress in managing the psychiatric symptoms of another family member. In transactional developmental psychopathology models, dynamic processes within the family interact with the psychological and biological vulnerabilities of high-risk individuals, interactions that change at different points of cognitive, social, or emotional development.¹ Transactional models are recursive: psychiatric symptoms or behaviors in an ill family member affect the psychological health and relationships of other family members, and the reactions of these family members affect the functioning of the ill person.².