Risk, Resiliency, & Protective Factors
(4-30-08)

Risk, At Risk, Children Placed At Risk

Factors associated with worse than expected developmental outcomes

Michael Rutter

low socioeconomic status
larger families
lower intelligence
children being in care

More complex views of risk

subject characteristics

intelligence
family history of maladjustment

environmental characteristics

poverty
urban setting
discrimination, crime, overcrowding anomie
maltreatment
neglect
abuse

subject-environment interactions

temperament/child rearing
attachment

Resiliency

Why do some children turn out better than expected?

Child focused protective factors

Intelligence
“Easy temperament”
Self-Esteem ?

Environmental factors

Protective Factors

Broad concept: can be subject, environmental, or interactive

Positive Role Models
Positive Peer Influences
Well functioning families

Figuring out casual relationships

Interaction

Children influence, as well as are influenced, by their environments

Risk and protective factors are often interactive: their joint effects are seldom simply additive or linear.

2 risk factors are usually worse than 1, but often are more then "twice" as bad as 1.

Particular combinations of risk factors are often especially destructive (or more benign):

"difficult temperament" + inconsistent parenting is an especially unfortunate combination