Familial risk and child competence.

Components of familial risk are examined in the context of a 4-year longitudinal study of children with mentally ill mothers. The risk factors examined are parental mental health, social status, parental perspectives, and family stress. The interactions among the risk factors were found to be complex in nature and different for child cognitive and social-emotional competence. These findings are discussed in the context of a systems approach to development in general, and to the development of children at risk in particular. Parental beliefs, attitudes, and coping abilities are hypothesized to be important mediators between environmental stress and child competencies.