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The Relationship Between Cumulative Risk and Promotive Factors and Violent Behavior Among Urban Adolescents

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American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

Resiliency theory posits that some youth exposed to risk factors do not develop negative behaviors due to the influence of promotive factors. This study examines the effects of cumulative risk and promotive factors on adolescent violent behavior and tests two models of resilience—the compensatory model and the protective model—in a sample of adolescent patients (14–18 years old; n = 726) presenting to an urban emergency department who report violent behavior. Cumulative measures of risk and promotive factors consist of individual characteristics and peer, family, and community influences. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the two models of resilience (using cumulative measures of risk and promotive factors) for violent behavior within a sample of youth reporting violent behavior. Higher cumulative risk was associated with higher levels of violent behavior. Higher levels of promotive factors were associated with lower levels of violent behavior and moderated the association between risk and violent behaviors. Our results support the risk-protective model of resiliency and suggest that promotive factors can help reduce the burden of cumulative risk for youth violence.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) grant 014889; Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT00251212. Special thanks are owed to the patients and medical staff at Hurly Medical Center for their support of this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, SPH 1 Room 3726, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Sarah A. Stoddard & Marc A. Zimmerman

  2. Department of Emergency Medicine and Hurley Medical Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Lauren Whiteside & Rebecca M. Cunningham

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Stephen T. Chermack & Maureen A. Walton

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  1. Sarah A. Stoddard
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  2. Lauren Whiteside
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  6. Maureen A. Walton
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Correspondence to Sarah A. Stoddard.

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Stoddard, S.A., Whiteside, L., Zimmerman, M.A. et al. The Relationship Between Cumulative Risk and Promotive Factors and Violent Behavior Among Urban Adolescents. Am J Community Psychol 51, 57–65 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-012-9541-7

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