Using community and family risk and protective factors for community‐based prevention planning

Abstract

AbstractResearch has identified risk and protective factors related to adolescent substance use using individual‐level data, but it is uncertain whether or not these relationships exist when data are aggregated to a community level. Using data from adolescents in 41 communities, this article found that most community and family risk and protective factors, measured at the community level, predicted student prevalences of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use 2 years later, whether using information from the same or different groups of students, although the predictive power was stronger within cohorts. The findings support community‐level prevention planning that uses epidemiological information on levels of community and family risk and protective factors to identify areas of elevated risk and low protection to be targeted for community‐based preventive interventions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comm Psychol 35: 535–555, 2007.