Child psychological adaptation and the presence of symptomatology is clearly the result of numerous factors that include personal variables (typical of the individual); environmental (external to the person); or relational, which is the result of the interactions of the person within their contexts. The common denominator of all these factors is the potentially stressful condition that characterizes them and their role as facilitator of psychological maladjustment in the child. The analysis of these conditions and their implications in the presence of a certain symptomatology as well as in the adaptation of the children, informs about the type of symptomatology and mismatch that they evoke, and the need to prevent its effects when we detect that they are present in the life of a child. The present symposium brings together a set of papers that analyze the psychological adjustment of children whose personal and vital conditions expose them to potentially stressful experiences, such as premature births, conditions of obesity, sexual abuse, and poly-victimization. It is of interest to know to what extent these conditions facilitate or not the maladjustment of minors, what particular type of psychological maladjustment causes and through which mechanisms affects their adaptation. All this can be at the base to alert the need to activate preventive actions that cushion their potential negative effects as well as the necessary interventions when these effects are present.

Miguel Angel Carrasco Ortiz is Professor of Psychological Evaluation in the Faculty of Psychology at the National University of Distance Education (Spain), and coordinator of the Department of Psychology at the same university. His research and teaching are focused on the area of assessment of child and youth problems. More detailed information on his research, clinical experience, and teaching is available in his website.