Surveying adolescents: Focusing on positive development.

Although risk behaviours can threaten healthy youth development, reducing risks alone is not sufficient to help youth successfully negotiate adolescence. Promoting protective factors that buffer risk, such as family and school connectedness, community engagement and positive peer support, are also important for helping youth to thrive. Since 1992, the Adolescent Health Surveys conducted by McCreary Centre Society (Vancouver, British Columbia) have monitored both risk behaviours and protective factors among high school students across British Columbia.