Risk, protective, and vulnerability factors for mental health and psychiatric disorders in adolescence II: The importance of parental child-rearing behavior, school environment, and social network

The indicators of general risk factors for mental disorders in addition to those for self-esteem as well as protection and vulnerability factors were collected separately for boys and girls in a sample of 1110 10-17 year-old subjects of a school-based quota sample in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerlan d. The factors under study were concerned with stress that was related to l ife events, parental child-rearing behavior, factors in the school environm ent and in the social network. General compensatory factors for both sexes included parental emotional war mth and support as well as peer acceptance, general risk factors for both s exes were perceived rejection and psychological pressure from the parents, competitive behavior among pupils, pressure to achieve, and controling beha vior of the teachers. Also for both sexes the factors of parental child-rea ring behavior 'emotional warmth and support' and 'rules/control', peer acce ptance and the efficiency of the social network presented as a protective f actor, rejection by the parents as a vulnerability factor for internalizing disorders. Only for the girls was rejection by the parents, only for the b oys was pressure to achieve a vulnerability factor for externalizing disord ers in each case.