1992 · Review · English

Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention

Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. and J.Y. Miller

Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. and J.Y. Miller (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 64–105. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.64

Summary

The review in Psychological Bulletin that established the risk-focused approach on which CTC is built. Hawkins, Catalano and Miller argue that the most promising route to effective prevention of adolescent alcohol and drug problems is to identify risk factors for drug abuse, find methods that have demonstrably reduced them, and test those methods in controlled studies with high-risk and general-population samples. The paper compiles the longitudinal evidence on contextual factors (laws and norms, availability, economic deprivation, neighbourhood disorganisation) and individual and interpersonal factors (family conflict and management, early conduct problems, academic failure, low commitment to school, peer rejection, drug-using peers, favourable attitudes and early onset), reviews protective factors that buffer risk, evaluates a range of prevention approaches for their potential with high-risk groups, and closes with recommendations for research and practice. Its risk-factor taxonomy is, with later refinements, the one still printed in CTC survey reports, and the paper remains one of the most cited in prevention science.