Understanding how family processes affect children's mental health: Implementing an international and interdisciplinary programme of research

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Mental health problems among youth in the UK are steadily on the increase. Family relationship experiences and parent mental health symptoms have been identified as factors that may underlie individual differences in children's symptoms of psychopathology. Yet questions remain as to the relative role of family level influences on children's mental health problems and the factors that may mediate and/or moderate these associations. The proposed programme of research will employ four complementary datasets that together will advance understanding of the interplay between family interaction patterns, parent mental health problems and child symptoms of psychopathology (e.g., depression, conduct problems). These datasets include a longitudinal US adoption-at-birth sample (N>500), a UK sample of children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF, N>1000), a UK longitudinal sample of adolescent children at familial risk for depression (N>300), and a cohort longitudinal study of children followed from birth to present age 38+ years (N>900, living in New Zealand). The proposed programme of research will advance three core objectives: (1) to substantively improve understanding of how family relationship processes and parent mental health problems affect mental health outcomes for children and adolescents, and to identify factors that mediate and moderate pathways, (2) to implement a mentorship model that will help develop world-class methodological and knowledge-transfer skills that will promote prospects for a sustainable career of international standing in the future, while also contributing to the promotion of transferable skills for UK social science, and (3) to facilitate engagement with relevant practice and policy agencies to promote knowledge transfer and implementation of findings in order to advance the next generation of intervention and prevention programmes with the objective of improving outcomes for children and families in the UK (and internationally). Collectively, a central objective of the proposed programme of research is to facilitate advanced training in two primary areas. First, training in the application of advanced multivariate statistics and the analysis of longitudinal data will be emphasised throughout the training/fellowship period. Second, training will be directed toward promoting skills development that facilitate engagement with practice and policy agencies in relation to dissemination and impact related activities specific to the programme of research outlined. Mentorship, training and support in these areas will allow the applicant to compete at an international level in relation to emerging knowledge and skills in this area in the future, and also contribute to the development of a recognised skills deficit in the UK in the area of advanced multivariate statistics, thereby improving the knowledge base in this area and increasing the prospect of knowledge transfer for future UK social scientists. Principal mentorship support will be provided by Professor Gordon Harold (University of Sussex) within the research environment provided by the School of Psychology and the Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice. This Centre is a newly established centre of excellence for the study of family processes and child development and the utilisation of large-scale data resources with the expressed purpose of generating evidence-led knowledge for the development of intervention-prevention programmes and working with practice and policy agencies in the UK and internationally. Collectively, the proposed programme of research, mentorship model, and access to practice and policy partners will help locate the applicant as a future world leader in the field of child and adolescent mental health, an area of recognised critical social, clinical and policy relevance to the UK.