Defining environmental risk: multiple dimensions of psychological vulnerability.
Children participating in a longitudinal study of risk for serious mental disorder were assessed at 48 months of age. Six risk factors were defined: negative life events, e.g., illness/injury to the child; maternal hospitalizations, for all reasons; number of children in the family; maternal psychiatric status; maternal cognitive orientation toward child-rearing; and single-parent family. The results show that the number of risk factors is negatively related to social and intellectual adjustment; a rigid conforming maternal cognitive orientation is associated with diminished intellectual and social performance; maternal psychiatric status is associated with lessened social performance. Additionally, the combination of a rigid conforming maternal cognitive orientation with negative life events is associated with diminished social adjustment. A discussion examines these results in a context defined by developmental and crisis theory.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012306:Risk; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors