Risk and Protective Factors of Children in Low and Middle Income Countries According to the Ecological Model

Children from war-affected countries bear the largest proportion of biological and psychological diseases estimated in children globally because of the high environmental risks found in war zones and the relatively non-existent infrastructures. A viable solution is to focus on preventing psychological dysfunction, a leading cause of morbidity in low and middle-income countries, by building stronger resilience in children. Resilience in itself is a phenomenon that is highly dependent on the culture and context in which it exists. In order to improve interventions aimed at helping these children we must firstly identify the various risk and protective factors they face in their countries. There are very few studies focused on preventing mental health problems in children from low and middle income countries; often interventions based on studies about resilience for children in western countries are applied on the field, however we cannot assume that these interventions will be effective for children in low and middle income countries since they do not have the same risk and protective factors. This study therefore reviews the literature about risk and protective factors for children in low and middle-income countries according to Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model of human development. Results show that most risk and protective factors of children from low and middle income countries are greatly different than those found in western countries. The use of the ecological model demonstrates the importance of aiming interventions at macro and institutional-level and the effectiveness of multi-level interventions.