1999 · Study · English
Risk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence?
Pollard, J.A., Hawkins, J.D. and M.W. Arthur
Pollard, J.A., Hawkins, J.D. and M.W. Arthur (1999). Risk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence? psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1093/swr/23.3.145
Summary
Cross-sectional analysis in Social Work Research that addresses a debate still alive in prevention practice: should programmes concentrate on building resilience and protective factors, or also on reducing risk? Some had argued that protection-focused interventions produce better outcomes; others objected that a resilience-only lens stresses individual traits and ignores social and contextual risks. Using self-report data from students in grades 6 to 12 in five US states, the authors relate exposure to a comprehensive set of risk and protective factors to substance use, academic outcomes and delinquency. Both sets of factors turn out to be associated with the outcomes, and neither on its own accounts for the pattern. The conclusion is that prevention policy and programmes should aim to reduce risk and promote protection together if they want lower substance use, crime and violence or better school performance. This is the empirical justification for the two-sided risk-and-protection profile that CTC draws for a community.