2012 · Study · English

Risk and protective factors for drug use and antisocial behavior in Spanish adolescents and young people

López Larrosa, S., & Rodríguez-Arias Palomo, J. L.

López Larrosa, S., & Rodríguez-Arias Palomo, J. L. (2012). Risk and protective factors for drug use and antisocial behavior in Spanish adolescents and young people. International Journal of Psychological Research, 5(1), 25–33. doi.org/10.21500/20112084.746

Summary

One of the earliest European applications of the Communities That Care Youth Survey, conducted with 2,440 adolescents and young people from several localities on the north-western coast of Spain. The survey measured drug use and antisocial behaviour together with risk and protective factors in the family, school, community and individual/peer domains. The authors asked what role age and sex play in predicting each outcome and which factors predict both. Age predicted drug use but not antisocial behaviour. Four risk factors predicted both outcomes – school failure, gang involvement, attitudes favourable to antisocial behaviour and early initiation of antisocial behaviour – as did two protective factors, social skills and belief in the moral order. The results confirm shared predictors and the reciprocal influence of drug use and antisocial behaviour. The design is cross-sectional and the sample regional, but the study shows the survey’s risk-and-protection logic holding in a Spanish population.