Child psychology and psychiatry have long examined how the environments in which children grow up shape their mental health. Contemporary frameworks on children's mental health emphasize the causal influence of environmental factors and how these influences vary across children by their individual characteristics. The present issue illustrates the breadth of relevant environmental influences, ranging from parental knowledge to neighborhood disadvantage and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, most empirical research in child psychology and psychiatry has focused on proximal environmental factors; broader societal factors - such as geopolitical tensions, climate change, and socioeconomic inequality - remain comparatively underexplored. In addition, most research on societal factors prioritizes societal factors as causes of child mental health. The impact of child mental health on societal developments has received far less attention. This Editorial advocates for greater integration of societal factors into research on child mental health and highlights the urgent need to examine the bidirectional relation between society and children, including how research contributes to societal change.
Leijten et al. (Thu,) studied this question.