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<p>Family climate is a critical context for child mental health, yet little is known about how specific family dynamics interact with children’s psychological symptoms at the item level. This study used network analysis to examine the fine-grained interplay between family cohesion, family conflict, and child mental health symptoms (internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems) in early primary school children. Data were collected from 3,129 children in Grades 1–3 across six primary schools in Guangdong, China, through a routine mental health screening program. An Ising model was estimated to examine the conditional associations among 60 items. Expected influence (EI) was used to identify the most influential nodes in the network, and NodeIdentifyR simulations were conducted to evaluate potential alleviating intervention targets. The most influential activating nodes were concentrated in attention problems, family conflict, externalizing symptoms, and specific internalizing symptoms. Difficulty concentrating and loud family arguments stood out clearly as the two most influential nodes. Notably, no family cohesion item ranked among the top 10 positive EI nodes. In contrast, the simulated intervention results were dominated by family cohesion nodes. At the same time, two attentional symptoms—difficulty concentrating and distractibility—were prominently identified in both the EI analysis and the simulated intervention analysis. These findings suggest that nodes with the highest expected influence are not necessarily the best intervention targets. Although conflictual family interactions and attentional and behavioral dysregulation appear especially important in sustaining the family climate–child mental health network, strengthening family cohesion and addressing attention problems may produce the greatest system-wide benefits.</p>

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Unraveling the Links Between Family Climate and Child Mental Health: Insights from Network Analysis

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年6月27日

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  • Chang Liu,
  • Tingxin He,
  • Wenjie Zhang,
  • Yongxing Guo,
  • Muxian Zhang,
  • Daoqun Ding,
  • Ruixiang Gao

摘要

Family climate is a critical context for child mental health, yet little is known about how specific family dynamics interact with children’s psychological symptoms at the item level. This study used network analysis to examine the fine-grained interplay between family cohesion, family conflict, and child mental health symptoms (internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems) in early primary school children. Data were collected from 3,129 children in Grades 1–3 across six primary schools in Guangdong, China, through a routine mental health screening program. An Ising model was estimated to examine the conditional associations among 60 items. Expected influence (EI) was used to identify the most influential nodes in the network, and NodeIdentifyR simulations were conducted to evaluate potential alleviating intervention targets. The most influential activating nodes were concentrated in attention problems, family conflict, externalizing symptoms, and specific internalizing symptoms. Difficulty concentrating and loud family arguments stood out clearly as the two most influential nodes. Notably, no family cohesion item ranked among the top 10 positive EI nodes. In contrast, the simulated intervention results were dominated by family cohesion nodes. At the same time, two attentional symptoms—difficulty concentrating and distractibility—were prominently identified in both the EI analysis and the simulated intervention analysis. These findings suggest that nodes with the highest expected influence are not necessarily the best intervention targets. Although conflictual family interactions and attentional and behavioral dysregulation appear especially important in sustaining the family climate–child mental health network, strengthening family cohesion and addressing attention problems may produce the greatest system-wide benefits.