Abstract.During a period of one year a questionnaire was filled in by parents of children who were more than one year old and admitted to the paediatric department in Randers, Denmark. The questionnaire was especially concerned with factors describing the social background of the family and with selected life events. Family background variables such as low level of parents' education and low income were found to be associated with psychosomatic and psychic diseases of the children. No associations between these negative family background variables and respiratory tract infections were found. The data show a strikingly high frequency of selected life events. Noticeable intercorrelations were found between social factors, life events, and diagnostic groups. In the light of this, it was not considered meaningful to analyze life events independently of the family background variables. A combined measurement for family background variables and selected life events was strongly associated with psychosomatic and psychic diseases. The additional information due to life events over the information due to family background variables was pronounced. It was remarkable that stressful life events also were frequent among children with some somatic diseases. The inference of these results is a plea for application of analysis of individual social history to more hospitalized children. The results might further have implications for preventive work with respect to the changes which seem to have taken place in important social conditions.