Risk factors for the development of mental disorders in children have been divided into child characteristics and those of his/her parents/family. Child characteristics include gender, age, ethnicity, physical health, cognitive and psychological function, pre- and perinatal exposures to illness, physical stress, alcohol, drugs, nutrition, infections and other environmental agents, and lifetime history of environmental exposures to toxins, stress, infections, social environment and stressful life events; family and parent characteristics including parental education, age, social class, employment, psychiatric and medical history, and family function, structure,7,10,19,71 and neighborhood and broader contextual influences on the health of children and their families.69 One of the most, consistent and potent risk factors for the development of mental disorders in children is a parental history of mental disorders. There is also some evidence for specificity of familial aggregation of the broad classes of mental disorders.26
