There is a growing awareness that American society is squandering its most precious asset,
its youth. Large segments of our young people are growing up in circumstarces of limited
resources and per-vasive adversity that, for many of them, their health, their development,
indeed their lives as a whole, are certain to be severely–and perhaps irretrievably–
compromised. Those who manage to supervene these conditions and “make it" in the larger
society deserve an accolade for heroism. Those, on the other hand, whose lives have been …

A social-psychological framework for the explanation of adolescent risk behavior is
presented. The framework incorporates attention to both person and situational variables,
and it differentiates both sets of variables into risk factors and protective factors. Risk is then
considered to be a resultant reflecting the balance of risk and protection. The framework
makes clear that being “at risk” for onsetting or initiating risk behaviors is an earlier
developmental stage than being “at risk” for the compromising health-and life-outcomes of …