You need to read this section on Risk & Protection in the correct order:
- Introduction < You are here
- Individual
- Community
- Family
- Peer and school factors
- Responding from a risk and protection framework
"Why do some young people use drugs?"
This question is one of the most commonly asked questions of workers in the human services. Why do some young people end up involved in high risk behaviours such as problematic drug use, and antisocial or criminal activity and others do not? Often the respondents try to answer this question using fairly simplistic responses; such as "breakdown of the family unit", "addictive personalities", "lack of discipline in our schools" etc.
For example, "poverty" is often given as the reason for many problems in communities and among individuals. Poverty can affect the capacity of a community to provide services, affect the ability of individuals to get to what services exist, impact on the nutritional status of an individual and/or family, and reduce access to education, health, accommodation and other services. Thus, it is an important factor to recognise.
However, while certainly having an impact, it is too simplistic an explanation. Individuals with the same income and/or living in the same deprived area may enact quite different lives. Some have a capacity to be resilient in the face of great adversity; others succumb quickly to what appears to be low-level risk exposure. Thus, when considering poverty we need to put it alongside the other factors; the same applies to families and communities.
It should be clear that the causes and origins of problematic drug use during adolescence is multi-determined and that the individual, the environment and the drugs themselves cannot be considered in isolation. It is too simplistic to think that the cause of behaviours can be attributed to one or two events or circumstances.
Further, simplistic responses such as these are unable to explain the situation where a young person may have experienced some of these events but not developed these problematic behaviours. In order to better provide an answer to this question, researchers have attempted to uncover those factors that are predictive of good and less good outcomes for young people.
In reflecting upon your own life, list some of the influences (events, people, and personal attributes) that you believe had an effect on your development, both positive and negative. Positive:
Negative:
Risk and protection
Researchers have found that there are a number of factors shared by young people who are experiencing certain outcomes. Some of these factors seem to increase risk and some seem to increase protection.
"Risk Factors" hinder adolescent development, limit coping abilities thus increasing susceptibility to social, behavioural and health problems.
"Protective Factors" enhance the coping abilities of a young person and decrease susceptibility to adverse consequences and/or mitigate the impact of risk factors.
An everyday example of risk & protection - car accidents
Risk and protective factors operate in many areas of life. For example, if we think of the incidence of motor accidents. There are certain conditions that will make accidents more or less likely.
- What risk factors can you think of that might make accidents more likely?
- What protective factors might negate the chances of an accident occurring?
Some risk factors that increase the occurrence of accidents are speeding and drinking, and poor road conditions. Protective factors that make accidents less likely are greater driving experience, ABS breaks and fine weather conditions.
Risk and protection at many levels
As you can see from the above example, risk and protective factors operate at many levels. For example, there are the individual factors (the driver's experience and ability) and external factors (car attributes and road and weather conditions). In the same way, researchers have also found that risk and protective factors for health related outcomes operate at a number of different levels; the individual, community, family, school and peer. The tables in the next sections outline some risk and protective as they apply across different health outcomes.
It is important to note that risk and protective factors vary with time, developmental stage of the young person, perceived meaning (attribution), circumstances, direct and indirect chains of events, and the interactions among the factors. For example a young person who is attempting to gain independence from family may find a supportive adult outside the family as a protective factor, whereas a younger person may find a supportive family environment as being more important in providing protection.
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Working with Young People with Alcohol or Other Drug Issues: A self-paced learning package Published: 2006 Funded by NSW Drug & Alcohol Workforce Development Council. Written & compiled by Kristy Delaney, YAPA, and Matt Stubbs & John Howard, Ted Noffs Institute. Additional material by Nick Manning, YAPA, & by Shopfront Youth Legal Centre. Opinions are the author's.
Be careful! YAPA and the authors took reasonable care to ensure that this information was correct at the time of publishing. However health information, and government regulations, laws and standards are complex and changing. The authors may not have health, safety, or legal qualifications, and information provided is general - it is not specific health, legal or professional advice. Do not rely on it - check with other publications and authorities and if necessary get qualified, medical, legal or professional advice for your situation.
