The Risk and Protective Factor Framework (applied to drug and alcohol use prevention)
(For more on risk and protective factors as they relate to violence, click here.)

Individual
Peer Association
Family Environment
School Related
Community Environment
Society Related

R
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F
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  • Rebelliousness
  • Friends who engage in the problem behavior
  • Favorable attitudes about the problem behavior
  • Early initiation of the problem behavior
  • Negative relationships with adults
  • Risk taking propensity/impulsivity

 

 

 

  • Association with delinquent peers who use or value dangerous substances
  • Association with peers who reject mainstream activities and pursuits
  • Susceptibility to negative peer pressure
  • Strong external locus of control

 

 

 

  • Family history of high-risk behavior
  • Family management problems
  • Family conflict
  • Parental attitudes and involvement in the problem behavior

 

 

 

  • Early and persistent antisocial behavior
  • Academic failure beginning in elementary school
  • Low commitment to school

 

 

 

 

 

  • Availability of drugs
  • Commmunity laws, norms, favorable toward drug use
  • Extreme econoomic and social deprivation
  • Transition and mobility
  • Low neighborhood attachment and community disorganization
  • Impoverishment
  • Unemployment and underemployment
  • Discrimination
  • Pro drug-use messages in the media

 

 

 

 

P
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  • Opportunities for prosocial involvement
  • Rewards/recognition for prosocial involvement
  • Healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior
  • Positive sense of self
  • Negative attitudes about drugs
  • Positive relationships with adults

 

 

  • Association with peers who are involved in school, recreation, service, religion, or other organized activities

 

 

 

 

 

  • Bonding
  • Healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior
  • High parental expectations
  • A sense of basic trust
  • Positive family dynamics

 

 

 

  • Opportunities for prosocial involvement
  • Rewards/recognition for prosocial involvement
  • Healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior
  • Caring and suppoort from teachers and staff
  • Positive instructional climate

 

 

 

  • Opportunities for participation as active members of the community
  • Decreasing substance accessibility
  • Cutural norms that set high expectations for youth
  • Social networks and support systems within the community
  • Media literacy (resistance to pro-use messages)
  • Decreased accesibility
  • Increased pricing through taxation
  • Raised purchasing age and enforcement
  • Stricter driving-while-under-the-influence laws.