In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, CACREP includes knowledge of systemic and family counseling concepts, including circular causality.
Circular causality in family systems theory emphasizes that family members mutually influence one another in ongoing interaction cycles. Behaviors are not understood as simple “A causes B” in a straight line; rather, each person’s behavior is both a response to and a stimulus for others’ behavior.
Option B captures this idea: a child’s behaviors are conceptually inseparable from parents’ behaviors—each is understood in the context of reciprocal interaction patterns, not isolated cause–effect.
Options A and D both reflect linear causality, implying that parents cause children’s actions in a one-way direction or that parents are always the “starting point.” This contradicts the systemic view. Option C is not a defining feature of circular causality; withdrawal may change patterns, but it is not inherent to the concept.
Thus, the statement most consistent with circular causality is B.
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