Editorial: Reflecting on child effects in psychology and psychiatry research

The authors explore publication trends in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry over the past 5 years regarding associations between parenting and child outcomes, with a focus on the directionality of these effects. Bibliometric analysis revealed that far more studies have examined parent-to-child associations than either child-to-parent or bidirectional associations, reflecting a significant imbalance in what researchers publishing in JCPP intend to study. However, when evaluating evidence from a subset of robust and well-designed studies, especially those that permit a test of bidirectionality, the authors see a more balanced picture, with a roughly equal number of studies finding evidence of parent-to-child, child-to-parent, and bidirectional effects. These studies used a range of methodologies and examined a diverse set of parenting behaviors and child outcomes. Overall, the findings suggest that evidence in favor of child effects is consistently observed despite being significantly understudied relative to that of parent effects. The authors emphasize the importance of studying both child and parent effects alongside one another to understand the complexity of parent-child interactions, and underscore how respect for the agency and perspectives of youth is essential to understanding how they shape the conditions in which they grow up.