RISK FACTORS EXPOSING YOUNG CHILDREN TO BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS

Abstract

The present review describes factors likely to increase the probability of behavioural problems in young children. Specific behaviours, when displayed early on at home, in daycare and at school, are powerful predictors of social maladaptation. In this review, we identify the main behavioural and social characteristics of children experiencing social maladaptation, then examine the risk factors associated with these maladaptations. These risk factors include: child based factors, family‐centered factors and contextual factors. Further, we give greater attention to studies reporting a combination of risk factors and processes. Children's social maladaptation is generally not the result of one biological or socialization process. On the contrary, risk factors combine in a dynamic process and must be examined one by one in terms of their associations. Because many of the risk factors identified in this review have only associative or a non‐causal links with maladaptive behaviours, researchers are urged towards more longitudinal and causal studies of risk factors. Moreover, intervention programs should focus on combinations of factors that might increase (as with risk factors) or decrease (as with protective factors) the probability of behaviour problems in children.