Risk Factors for Addiction

Prevention focused on risk and protective factors is based on a simple premise: To prevent a problem from happening, one needs to identify the factors that increase the risk of that problem developing and then find ways to reduce the risk. At the same time, one must also identify those factors that buffer individuals from the risk factors present in their environments and then find ways to increase the protection. The risk and protective factor approach is similar to the medical model for heart disease. The medical model for heart disease advances the idea that there are several factors that put adults at risk of heart disease, such as eating fatty foods and smoking. In addition, several protective factors exist that have been shown to shield adults from acquiring heart disease, such as eating diets low in fat and getting plenty of exercise. The same model works in understanding substance abuse prevention. There are some factors that put youth at risk of using substances and some factors that protect or shield youth from using substances. It is this theoretical approach that will be explored first.

Prevention based on risk and protective factors is based on the work of David Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and a team of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. In the early 1980s, they conducted a review of 30 years of youth substance abuse and delinquency research and identified risk factors for adolescent substance abuse and delinquency. They have continually updated this review.

The primary focus of substance abuse prevention programs is reducing or preventing substance abuse; however, since problem behaviors—including substance abuse, violence, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and school dropout—share many common risk factors, reducing these risk factors is likely to reduce multiple problem behaviors. Because both risk factors and protective factors are observable, they lend themselves to interventions. The following is a summary of the research-based risk factors and the problem behaviors they predict (in parentheses). Please note that the research is divided into four domains: community, family, school, and individual-peer risk factors.