The most common problems among minors are difficulties in communicating with people around them - parents, teachers, peers. All social connections of children and adolescents influence each other. And, often, the true reason lies not in relationships with open confrontation, but in other, indirect relationships. In order to understand the true reasons for a child’s difficult life situation, it is necessary to analyze the minor’s network of contacts. The concept of “contact network” was introduced by anthropologist John Barnes, who conducted research on the Norwegian island of Bømlu in the 1950s in order to describe the social connections between inhabitants of the island, their functions and contents. The concept of a network of social contacts includes both people and the nature of the relationships between them. Here is the classic definition of a network of social contacts given by Mitchell - this is “typical relationships in a group of certain individuals, where the style of contacts carries such qualities that, using a holistic analysis, can be used to explain the behavior of these people” [3]. When working with a network of social contacts based on the socio-ecological theory of Kurt Lewin. He argued that the behavior and development of an individual is influenced by his “living space.” “Living space” has common features with an ecosystem and a network of social contacts. This theory was further developed and analyzed in detail in the work of Yuri Bronfenbrenner [2], who attempted to give the social interaction between the individual and the context a central place in the ecological system. In Bronfenbrenner's interpretation, this makes it possible to analyze the existence of a child in all its diversity. Not only the systems themselves in which the child is included are subject to analysis, but also how these systems interact and influence each other. The analysis also reveals connections that have an indirect impact on the child [3]. Thus, they distinguish [2]: microsystems, mesosystems and exosystems. In the microsystem (see Figure 1), attention is focused on the relationships that exist within the system, such as family, school environment, etc. Rice. 1. Microsystems. Mesosystems are an intersystem space (see Fig. 2). A well-functioning mesosystem is characterized by many different contacts between microsystems, as well as the absence of serious conflicts between them. Contacts between microsystems are of great importance for mental health. Rice. 2. Mesosystems. Exosystems are systems into which children themselves do not belong, but which indirectly influence the child (see Fig. 3). Conflicts in the father's workplace have an impact on the internal life of the family, and thus have significance for the child, despite the fact that the child may never have been at the father's work. Cuts in the school management system affect the work of teachers, and thus children. Rice. 3. Exosystems. When we talk with a person about his life situation, he usually starts with what seems most problematic to him at the moment. But a teenager is also greatly influenced by the relationships of the people around him (relationships with parents, friends, teachers and all the relationships between these groups of people). This whole tangle of connections is growing and becoming more and more confusing. One question leads to another. The consultant must find a method that allows him to organize and review all the information he receives. An excellent help for the therapist and the teenager can be the child’s description of his life situation and social environment using a network map, which may look like this (see Fig. 4): Fig. 4. Network card. Let's consider the contents of the sectors. By family we mean everyone living under one roof. This could be mother, father, brothers and sisters, maternal grandmother. If some of the children have moved to live elsewhere, they are no longer considered to be living together as members of the family, but are classified asrelatives. Relatives - all relatives on the mother's side and on the father's side, as well as everyone who is married to them. If divorced parents entered into new marriages, then the child’s closest relatives became four. Work, school, kindergarten. Their role is often underestimated in the therapeutic context, although often the person spends almost as much time at work, school or kindergarten as at home. This sector, along with the family sector, forms the daily basis of our lives. It is in these two microsystems that we find ourselves every day. Administrative authorities. Specialists from centers and organizations with which family members interact (social workers, psychologists, officials, etc.). Drawing up a network map is carried out in several stages. The client is given the following instructions: 1. Depict all the people who are significant to you.2. Distance. Place them on a social map (network map) in relation to you. You are in the middle. Place those who are closest to you closer to you, others - further away from you. Don't forget also significant people with whom you are in conflict.3. Connections. Connect those who know each other with straight lines. It shows connections between people. It can be difficult to depict all the connections, so highlight the most important ones. For example, connections between different systems or persons that are in conflict with each other. We denote the conflict by -------. If the conflict escalates so much that contact is interrupted, then we call it a break. We denote the gap by ---| |---. The one in the middle does not need to be connected with anyone by lines, since everyone is familiar with this person.4. People: men are indicated by a triangle, and women by a circle. Symbolic persons (for example, “idols”, role models) are indicated by a triangle (men), or a circle (women) with rays. The dead (symbolic persons) are designated by a triangle (men) or a circle (women) with a cross inside. Animals are indicated by a rectangle.5. Appraisal mark. You can designate as a minus significant people with whom you have negative relationships. The plus of those you like; a plus or minus sign - towards which you are ambivalent, that is, there is neither strong sympathy nor antipathy, but they are significant to you.6. Movement: The network map is a snapshot of what my network looks like at the moment, but it is constantly changing. This dynamics can be indicated by arrows: A person approaching you is depicted with an arrow to the right, a person moving away from you is depicted with an arrow to the left. The client, if possible, independently draws up his own network card. Sometimes clients ask the therapist to depict on the map the people they named and the relationships between them. It is believed that those depicted at the top of the map - family and relatives - determine stability, because these connections are the closest and closest. Work, school, kindergarten, friends, neighbors, clubs and even administrative bodies are present in our lives at certain periods, but not all the time. Schoolchildren, step by step, interact more and more with the surrounding reality, and gradually new people appear at the bottom of their network map. The rebellion of teenagers and their need for change is clearly visible on the network map. The friends sector is crowded, while parents and friends are moving to the periphery. As a rule, teenagers with adaptation problems indicate that they have few friends, and their network maps resemble those of younger children. Next, the distance of significant persons is analyzed. A person, developing independence, constantly establishes a distance in relation to others. When a mother draws her one-year-old son close to her, this is a way of describing an age-appropriate symbiosis. If the boy is 15 years old, and the mother still does not draw clear boundaries on the map, then some questions should be asked. What the connections (connections) look like in a network of contacts shows us how well the different parts of the network (microsystems) are connected., 2005.