Research and conversations on child and family well-being often focus on the risk factors that contribute to poor outcomes. Though it is critical to understand risk factors, it is equally important to understand protective factors. Protective factors are conditions or attributes of individuals, families, and communities that help buffer the negative impact of exposure to risky situations. Understanding protective factors helps guide prevention strategies that help build protective factors for at and in-risk children and families.

Research on resilience, protective factors, and developmental assets has been going on for a while, and the Administration for Children, Youth and Families recently released Promoting Protective Factors for In-Risk Families and Youth: A Brief for Researchers. This review of research on protective factors sought to uncover protective factors in runaway and homeless youth, youth exposed to domestic violence, youth transitioning out of foster care, victims of child abuse and neglect, and pregnant and parenting teens.

Often in the juvenile justice world our focus is on removing “risk factors”, but it is not enough to simply understand what puts children and families at risk. We must understand how to build and promote resiliency by building protective factors around our vulnerable populations.

By Emily Bergman and Jim Moeser