RISK FACTOS AND CAUSES OF

EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDER
BIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOSOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
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Poverty or low
income
Malnutrition during
pregnancy
Chromosomal
syndromes
 Dysfunction in the family
setting including parental
discord, and psychopathology
Poor caregiving from
depressed parents
RISK FACTOS AND CAUSES OF
EMOTIONAL AND
BEHAVIORAL DISORDER
BIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOSOCIAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES
 BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES

HUMAN
BEHAVIOR

PSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCES
 BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES
Humans are drive to be warm, fed, sheltered,
have companionship (with some humans
having stronger biological drives to reproduce),
and be free from harm and oppression
PSYCHOSOCIAL INFLUENCES
Socially, humans are partially shaped by
our environments. This is the "nurture"
part of understanding human behaviors
Risk factors that influence developmental psychopathology
1. Prenatal damage from alcohol, drugs, or smoking
2. Low birth weight
3. Inherited temperament problems
4. External risk factors (poverty, deprivation, abuse, and
neglect)
5. Unsatisfactory relationships
6. Parental psychopathology
7. Exposure to trauma
BIOLOGICAL
INFLUENCE
• Most emotional and behavior disorders develop from
some combination of both genetic and environmental
factors
• Biological factors may also be involved in the etiology of
social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder and other
disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome and
ADHD/attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Biological factors of a genetic nature may thus account
for some mental disorders such as autism, bipolar
disorder, schizophrenia according to the National
Institute of Mental Health.
 Important points
Not all biological influences are based on
genetics

Biological factors are not necessarily

independent of environmental factors—they
are actually with them
Biological risk factors
1. intrauterine exposure to alcohol or cigarette smoke
2. prenatal trauma
3. exposure to lead
4. malnutrition during pregnancy
5. traumatic brain injury
6. some mental retardation
7. chromosomal syndromes
PSYCHOSOCIAL
INFLUENCE
Psychosocial risk factors
• Dysfunction in the family setting including parental discord,
and psychopathology
• Over-crowding and large family size
• Poverty or low income
• Exposure to acts of violence may also predispose a child to
develop a mental disorder
• Poor caregiving from depressed parents
• Maternal problems and risk factors
end