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Alcohol Impaired Driving Facts
Risk Factors for Increased Alcohol Consumption
Risk Factors for Alcohol Impaired Driving
Protective Factors
Marijuana and Driving Facts
Traffic Safety and Impaired Driving Facts
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Protective Factors
While there are factors that may
increase the chance that a person will become overly involved with
alcohol, there are also factors, both situational and personal,
that can help prevent such likelihood as follows: (taken from http://www.hawaii.gov/health/resource/adad/adprvpri.htm)
Community Environment:
- Middle or upper class
- Low unemployment
- Adequate housing
- Pleasant neighborhood
- Low prevalence of neighborhood crime
- Good schools
- Schools that promote learning, participation, and
responsibility
- High-quality health care
- Easy access to adequate social services
- Flexible social services providers who put clients'
needs first
Family Environment:
- Adequate family income
- Structured and nurturing family
- Parents who promote learning
- Fewer than four children in family
- Two or more years between the birth of each child
- Few chronic stressful life events
- Multigenerational kinship network
- Non-kin support network, e.g., supportive role
models, dependable substitute child care
- Warm, close personal relationship with parent(s)
and/or other adult(s)
- Little marital conflict
- Family stability and cohesiveness
- Plenty of attention during first year of life
- Sibling as caretaker/confidante
- Clear behavior guidelines
Constitutional Strengths:
- Adequate early sensorimotor and language development
- High intelligence
- Physically robust
- No emotional or temperamental impairments
Personality of the Individual:
- Affectionate/endearing
- Easy temperament
- Autonomous
- Adaptable and flexible
- Positive outlook
- Healthy expectations
- Self-efficacy
- Self-discipline
- Internal locus of control
- Problem-solving skills
- Socially adept
- Tolerance of people and situations
If the high-risk environment is the family itself--for
instance if children are growing up in an alcoholic or drug-abusing
family--studies suggest that they have a better chance of growing
into healthy adulthood if they:
- Can learn to do one thing well that is valued by
themselves, their friends, or their community;
- Are required to be helpful as they grow up;
- Are able to ask for help for themselves;
- Are able to elicit positive responses from others
in their environment;
- Are able to distance themselves from their dysfunctional
families so that the family is not their sole frame of reference;
- Are able to bond with some socially valued, positive
entity such as school, community group, church, or another family;
- Are able to interact with a caring adult who provides
consistent caring responses
References:
1. Hawaii Department of Health Public Resources. Alcohol
and Drug Abuse. Retrieved on November 26, 2003 from the World Wide
Web: http://www.hawaii.gov/health/resource/adad/adprvpri.htm
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