ABSTRACT
The development of psychological problems in children and adolescents is influenced by many factors. A distinction may be made between risk factors which predispose children to developing psychological problems, precipitating factors which trigger the onset or marked exacerbation of psychological difficulties, maintaining factors which perpetuate psychological problems once they have developed, and protective factors which prevent further deterioration and have implications for prognosis and response to treatment. Predisposing risk factors, protective factors and maintaining factors may be subclassified as falling into the personal or contextual domains, with personal factors referring to biological and psychological characteristics of the child, and contextual factors referring to features of the child’s psychosocial environment including the family, the school, the peer group and involved treatment agencies. A framework within which some of the more important variables in each of these categories are classified is presented in Figure 2.1. In this chapter the variables listed in this framework will be described.
