Table 1 Assumptions underpinning the NEM and adaptions required for COMPI-NEM [5]

Societies hold a vast reserve of people who can be and are consulted during an illness episode i.e. a multiplicity of resources with the potential for therapeutic function

The visibility of a parental episode in COPMI networks is likely to vary; there is an additional degree of separation between the parent exhibiting mental health need and network to be activated via the child [23, 27] (Ofsted, 2013; Gray et al., 2008)

Bounded rationality (decision makers are rational, but limited by contextual factors such as time, information and cognitive capacity)

Children face unique contextual factors and bounds to rationality compared to adults, such as reduced relative cognitive capacity and reduced autonomy in type and variety of social environments exposed to

Decision making is dynamic; decision makers form strategies, which are informed by consequences of previous decisions

Children have limited prior data to strategy form; children are actively learning decision making autonomy [28]

Decision making is informed by interaction with social ties which form networks

This may be particularly true for children with lower relative decision making autonomy and increased dependence on caregivers [28]