Domain and Process

Contexts

Context is a term used to describe the different environmental and personal factors that are specific to each client.


Man and teenage boy sitting at school table using tablet
Context influences how clients:

  • Access opportunities to engage and participate in occupations
  • Identify with roles
  • Develop habits and routines
  • Perform activities and occupations, and
  • Experience meaning, purpose, and satisfaction with life.

Some activities and occupations occur in specific contexts. Occupational therapy practitioners should identify the contextual factors that influence each client's occupational engagement.

Environmental Factors: the physical, social, and attitudinal environment in which people live and conduct their lives and have positive aspects (“facilitators”) or negative aspects (barriers or hindrances; WHO, 2008).

Environmental factors include:

  • The natural environment and human-made changes to the environment,
  • Products and technology,
  • Support and relationships,
  • Attitudes held by persons other than the client,
  • Services, and
  • Systems and policies.

Personal factors: the unique features of a person that are not part of a health condition or health state and that provide background about the person’s life and how they live. Personal factors are not good or bad, but they can influence how a person views their own functioning and the presence or absence of a disability.

Personal factors include basic demographic information such as chronological age, sexual orientation, gender identity, race and ethnicity, level of education, profession, presence of health conditions, and socioeconomic status.

Personal factors also include other influences that describe “who the person is.” Examples include:

  • Values, attitudes, and beliefs,
  • Cultural identification,
  • Upbringing and life experiences,
  • Social background and behavioral patterns,
  • Temperament and coping style, and
  • Lifestyle preferences.

 References

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(Suppl. 2), 7412410010. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.74S2001

World Health Organization. (2008). International classification of functioning, disability and health: ICF. WHO Press.

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