Family environment, neurodevelopmental risk, and the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) initiative: Looking back and moving forward
Short Summary: This review article discusses how various aspects of the family environment, such as socioeconomic status, parenting behaviors, and parental mental health, can affect children's neurodevelopmental outcomes, particularly their mental health. The article also introduces the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, a new initiative by the National Institutes of Health that aims to advance our understanding of the impact of family environment on children's mental health. The article concludes by highlighting some unresolved questions and controversies in this field, and how ECHO can help address them.
Scientific Abstract: The family environment, with all its complexity and diverse components, plays a critical role in shaping neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. Herein we review several domains of the family environment (family socioeconomic status, family composition and home environment, parenting behaviors and interaction styles, parental mental health and functioning, and parental substance use) and discuss how these domains influence neurodevelopment, with particular emphasis on mental health outcomes. We also highlight a new initiative launched by the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. We discuss the role that ECHO will play in advancing our understanding of the impact of the family environment on children's risk for psychiatric outcomes. Lastly, we conclude with important unanswered questions and controversies in this area of research, highlighting how ECHO will contribute to resolving these gaps in our understanding, clarifying relationships between the family environment and children's mental health.
Authors: Bush NR, Wakschlag LS, LeWinn KZ, Hertz-Picciotto I, Nozadi SS, Pieper S, Lewis J, Biezonski D, Blair C, Deardorff J, Neiderhiser JM, Leve LD, Elliott AJ, Duarte CS, Lugo-Candelas C, O'Shea TM, Avalos LA, Page GP, Posner J.