The article contains the research completed in 2004 according to the project of the Nordic Council of Ministers “Development of cooperation networks in providing early preventive psychosocial help to vulnerable families, raising children with disabilities”. The aim of the research is to evaluate the discussed opinions of the educators and specialists in institutions of pre-school education on the following issues: how the social risk is understood, how social risk families are recognized and how the problems arising due to the social risk are solved. The following problem issues are raised: To what extent is the formal definition of the social risk environment comprehensive? Does it coincide with the context of the everyday application of the concept of social risk? Can the social risk environment be identified with the social risk family? How are the risk factors negatively influencing the development of the child’s personality evaluated? It is disclosed that the formal definition of the social risk environment is not comprehensive, the social risk is identified with the social risk family and there is the lack of the methodical ecological approach, basing on which the social risk could be valued while taking the wider social context, interactions and relationships into account. The preventive measures are formal and not specific and the main attention is paid to interventions. In practice the social risk factors, which negatively influence the development of the child’s personality and predetermine the problem issues in the child’s behaviour, are evaluated by taking into account very evident external indications
