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Risk and Protective Factors Results

Research during the past 30 years supports the view that delinquency; alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; school achievement; and other important outcomes in adolescence are associated with specific characteristics in the student’s community, school and family environments, as well as with characteristics of the individual (Hawkins, Catalano and Associates, 1992). In fact, these characteristics have been shown to be more important in understanding these behaviors than ethnicity, income or family structure (Blum et al., 2000). Just as eating a high-fat diet and getting regular exercise are risk and protective factors for heart  disease and other health problems, there are factors that can help protect youth from, or put them at risk for, drug use and other problem behaviors.

Protective factors, which can be considered assets, are conditions that buffer children and youth from exposure to risk by either reducing the impact of the risks or changing the way that young people respond to risks. Examples are:

Risk factors are conditions that increase the likelihood of a young person becoming involved in drug use, delinquency, school dropout and/or violence. Risk factors are characteristics in the community, family, school and individual’s environments that are known to increase the likelihood that a student will engage in one or more problem behaviors. The analysis of risk and protective factors is the most powerful tool available for understanding what promotes both positive and negative adolescent behavior and for helping design successful prevention programs for young people.  Examples are:

*Those risk and protective factors in bold italics are the most deficient (protective factor) or prevalent (risk factor) in our community as determined from the 2004 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Results of the survey can be found at: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/mentalhealth/publications/fysas/