Highlighting the link between the emotional well-being of children and adolescents and their parents' mental health, this policy brief reports key findings for Washington state from the National Survey of American Families, a national telephone survey of representative samples of American families in 13 states, including Washington. Analyses focused on aspects of the family environment that were associated with a child experiencing symptoms of severe emotional and behavioral problems and that were associated with parental symptoms of poor mental health and high levels of aggravation. Findings revealed that elementary school children whose parents experienced symptoms of poor mental health or high parental aggravation were almost five times as likely to have severe emotional and behavioral problems as children whose parents reported better mental health or only moderate aggravation. Parents who had a child with severe emotional and behavioral problems had about a five-fold risk of reporting their own mental health challenges. Other family characteristics associated with poor parental mental health included economic hardship, single parents not living with a partner, parental unemployment, and having at least one teenager in the home. Other family characteristics associated with high parental aggravation included low parental education, economic hardship, single parents not living with a partner, and leaving a child under 13 years without adult supervision. Policy implications relate to improving mental health service delivery, improving community services, and improving payment/insurance systems. (KB)