Risk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence?

Prevention science has suggested that preventive interventions should reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors. Recently, some researchers have proposed that preventive interventions focused on enhancing protective factors and promoting resilience will produce more positive outcomes than interventions that focus attention on risk factors. Others have argued that focus solely on the resilience of young people emphasizes individual characteristics and ignores important social and contextual risk factors. The present study explored relationships between self-reported exposure to a comprehensive set of risk and protective factors and outcomes, including substance use, school outcomes, and delinquency, in a five-state sample of sixth- through 12th-grade students. The results indicate that prevention policies and programs should focus on the reduction of risk and the promotion of protective influences if reduction in the substance use, crime, and violence among adolescents or the improvement in academic performance are intended outcomes.