Which of the following best describes yellow flags in the context of pain and screening?

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Yellow flags are psychosocial and contextual factors that can influence how a person experiences pain, behaves, and recovers. These include beliefs and attitudes about pain (fear, catastrophizing, and kinesiophobia), mood (depression, anxiety), coping strategies, expectations of treatment, social support, work-related factors, and barriers to activity or adherence. Recognizing them during screening helps explain why pain may become persistent or disabling despite minimal underlying pathology and guides interventions that address education, reassurance, graded activity, and cognitive- or emotionally focused strategies. They differ from red flags, which signal potential serious disease requiring urgent action; yellow flags are not about physical findings alone, nor about pain that will necessarily improve with medications.