Early parent-child synchrony as a window into psychosis risk: Commentary on Zarubin et al. (2025)

Recent work by Zarubin et al. (2025) suggests that subtle differences in early parent-child interaction-such as responsiveness, shared emotion, and eye contact-predict later psychotic-like experiences at the transition to adolescence. In this Commentary, I argue that these early social patterns reflect not static "deficits" but rather disruptions in interactive coordination: the real-time give-and-take through which children learn to predict and align with others. Within a broader multifactorial neurodevelopmental framework, psychosis risk may become evident when the developing rhythm of connection between a child and a caregiver becomes mistuned-long before any formal symptoms appear. Viewing parent-child synchrony as a process that can be strengthened rather than as a fixed trait opens translational opportunities for brief, relationship-based interventions that enhance moment-to-moment alignment in interactions. Recognizing this rhythm as both a marker and a potential mechanism of vulnerability may help move the field toward a developmental, prevention-oriented model of psychosis-one that begins not in the clinic but in the everyday exchanges between a child and a caregiver. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).