Shalev A, Merranko J, Goldstein T, et al. - The longitudinal course of family functioning was compared among offspring of parents with bipolar disorder (BD), offspring of parents with non-BD psychopathology, and offspring of healthy control (HC) parents. For an average of 4.3 years, researchers followed up the offspring of parents with BD (256 parents and 481 offspring), parents without BD (82 parents and 162 offspring), and HC parents (88 parents and 175 offspring) 7 to 18 years of age at intake, from the Bipolar Offspring Study. Findings revealed lower cohesion and adaptability and higher conflict among families of parents with BD and parents with non-BD psychopathology than HC families. Family impairment was observed in correlation with all parental psychopathologies. These results were influenced by the offspring’s age and, to a lesser degree, by offspring psychopathology; parental psychosocial functioning mediated these results. Findings thereby highlight the necessity for routinely assessing family functioning in addition to psychopathology and providing appropriate interventions to parents and offspring.