Qualitative Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors of Families at Risk in Croatia

The aim of this paper is to present results of the scientific project Specific characteristics of families at risk: contribution to complex interventions planning, financed by Croatian scientific foundation (IP-2014-09-9515) oriented toward analysis of risk and protective factors as well as coping strategies of families at risk from Zagreb (Croatia) using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of family group interviews.

The sample is consisted of ten families with complex needs where at least one member (usually the child) is included in social service or mental health interventions due to the child’s behaviour problems.

Results indicated that these families face many risks and stressors during their life pathways and generally use different functional as well as unfuctional family coping strategies in dealing with their everyday problems where coping strategies can be seen as both protective or risk factor for those families.

Life pathways of these families clearly point to a direction in which complex interventions offered by the system should intervene.