Parsing protection and risk for problem behavior versus pro-social behavior among US and Chinese adolescents.

This study investigates the different roles played by protective factors and risk factors-and by particular protective and risk factors-when the concern is with accounting for adolescent problem behavior than when the concern is with accounting for adolescent pro-social behavior. The protective and risk factor literature on adolescent problem behavior reveals considerable conceptual and operational ambiguity; an aim of the present study was to advance understanding in this domain of inquiry by providing a systematic conceptualization of protection and risk and of their measurement. Within the systematic framework of Problem Behavior Theory, four protective and four risk factors are assessed in a cross-national study of both problem behavior and pro-social behavior involving large adolescent samples in China (N = 1,368) and the US (N = 1,087), in grades 9, 10, and 11; females 56 %, US; 50 %, China.

The influence of social involvement, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable consumption.

Objectives: We considered the relationship between an urban adult population's fruit and vegetable consumption and several selected social and psychological processes, beneficial aesthetic experiences, and garden participation.

Methods: We conducted a population-based survey representing 436 residents across 58 block groups in Denver, Colorado, from 2006 to 2007. We used multilevel statistical models to evaluate the survey data.

College student involvement in cigarette smoking: the role of psychosocial and behavioral protection and risk.

A theory-based protection and risk model was applied to explain variation in college students' cigarette smoking. Key aims were to examine whether psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors can account for cross-sectional and developmental variation in smoking, and to examine whether protection moderates the impact of risk on smoking involvement. Data for this three-wave longitudinal study were collected in fall 2002, spring 2003, and spring 2004 from 549 male and 427 female first-semester college students at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Protective and risk factors in health-enhancing behavior among adolescents in China and the United States: does social context matter?

An explanatory model of adolescent health-enhancing behavior based on protective and risk factors at the individual level and in 4 social contexts was used in a study of school-based samples from the People's Republic of China (n = 1,739) and the United States (n = 1,596). A substantial account of variation in health-enhancing behavior--and of its developmental change over time--was provided by the model for boys and girls, and for the 3 grade cohorts, in both samples. In both samples, social context protective and risk factors accounted for more unique variance than did individual-level protective and risk factors, and context protection moderated both contextual and individual-level risk.

A developmental study of heavy episodic drinking among college students: the role of psychosocial and behavioral protective and risk factors.

Objective: A theory-based protection/risk model was applied to explain variation in college students' heavy episodic drinking. Key aims were (1) to establish that psychosocial and behavioral protective factors and risk factors can account for cross-sectional and developmental variation in heavy episodic drinking, and (2) to examine whether protection moderates the impact of risk on heavy episodic drinking.

Method: Random- and fixed-effects maximum likelihood regression analyses were used to examine data from a three-wave longitudinal study.