Typical configurations of psychosocial stress factors of psychiatrically conspicuous children and adolescents

: Typical configurations of psychosocial stressors in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Abnormal psychosocial situations are strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. They are significant risk factors, and sometimes play a causative role. Information about such situations can therefore serve as a basis for planning and implementation of therapeutic interventions. Up till now, however, there has been little evidence for the specificity of the relationship between psychosocial factors and psychiatric disorders. Therefore, in the present study cluster analysis was used to group a psychiatric population of children and adolescents by typical configurations of psychosocial stressors, and the subjects in these clusters were then compared with regard to age, gender, psychiatric disorders and level of intelligence. Five clusters were formed, with qualitative and quantitative differences. One cluster consists of cases with various psychiatric disorders but few psychosocial stressors or none at all. In the other four clusters, "parental handicap, mental disorder or deviation" and "anomalous parenting situation" are variables of key importance as one of them occurs in each cluster, together with different combinations of other psychosocial factors. In the one cluster where both of the previously mentioned key variables occur all of the additional factors also occur.