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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