Researchers refer to "risk factors" as factors that can cause obstacles to overcoming adversity. These factors can be individual, familial or social in nature. Some people develop mental health problems with few risk factors, while others develop a disorder with the accumulation of several risk factors. People's life courses are very different, therefore making it difficult to predict what would trigger a disorder for one person but not for the other.
Individual risk factors can be innate or acquired. Therefore, a person may come into the world with the risk factors, or they may have them as a result of life experiences. An innate factor is present from birth (e.g., intellectual or physical disability at birth). An acquired factor develops over time through experience and learning (e.g., alcohol abuse).
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Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience & Culture Laboratory
School of Psychology
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Ottawa
136 Jean-Jacques Lussier, Ottawa, ON,
Canada, K1N 6N5
613-562-5800 ext. 4459
vtrac@uOttawa.ca