Protective Factor

For those experiencing trauma, support is available. Please see our Get Help Now page for more resources.

A protective factor is a characteristic or condition that reduces or eliminates the influence of a risk or traumatic event. It can be internal, such as a person’s attitude toward school, or external, such as community policies that support low-income families.

Protective factors are linked to resilience, a person’s ability to overcome hardship, and they make positive outcomes more likely.

Protective factors can be either static or temporal. Static protective factors do not change. These can include things like a positive childhood, strong coping skills, and no family history of mental illness. Temporal factors can change depending on an individual's situation, including supportive friends having financial security, or a safe neighborhood. Moving to a new city would remove these factors and require a person to acquire them again.

Dozens of protective factors may be present in a person’s life, and some are closely associated with one another. For example, if a child has strong, positive relationships with their parents, they may also have clear behavioral boundaries² and shared activities within the home that foster connectedness. The more protective factors an individual has, the more insulated they may be from the impact of stressful situations.  

There isn’t a set list of protective factors on which all agencies and experts agree. Still, the Children’s Bureau within the US Department of Health and Human Services identifies six strengths within families that can be nurtured to help prevent child abuse and neglect.

• Nurturing and attachment
• Knowledge of parenting for child and youth development
• Parental resilience
• Social connections
• Concrete support for parents
• Social and emotional competence of children

Coined by John Grych and Sherry Hamby in their article "The Resilience Portfolio Model: Understanding Healthy Adaptation in Victims of Violence", the resilience portfolio model was designed to highlight protective factors and processes that promote resilience in individuals exposed to violence. A person’s resilience portfolio includes the resources and assets influencing how they respond to violence. 

Three kinds of strengths are especially beneficial for strong resilience skills. These are considered an individual’s assets.

People with meaning-making strengths can make sense of major life events and contextualize them within their beliefs and values. 

Self-regulation includes emotional, cognitive, physiological, and behavioral components. People with strong self-regulation can maintain goal-driven behavior both in the present and over a long period. Individuals with this strength may display perseverance and optimism, often planning for the future. 

Someone with interpersonal strengths often has characteristics including gratitude, generosity, and compassion. Having strong social support may also give individuals interpersonal strength. 

A person’s resources encompass all the sources of support a person may have, such as the following:

• Relationships where emotional, financial, or instrumental support is offered
• Environmental factors, including socioeconomic status, school and community organizations, and neighborhood cohesion.
• Coping responses that influence how a person responds to violence

Protective factors are classified under biological, psychological, family, or community domains. Peer and society-related protective factors are also sometimes included.  

Individual (biological/psychological) protective factors are the personal characteristics that impact a person’s behavioral choices. These are often attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors associated with positive outcomes such as:

• High self-esteem
• High IQ
• Strong coping skills and emotional regulation
• Strong social skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Engagement in school, friendships, athletics, employment, culture, or religion

Family-related protective factors have to do with parent-child relationships, family structure, and the culture within an individual family. 

• Structure and limits provided by family
• Clear behavioral expectations
• Strong relationships with family members
• Predictability within family and home
• Shared family activities
• Availability of economic resources to expose a child to different experiences

Peer-related protective factors include peer-norms and a child’s socialization. The impact of a child’s peers often depends on their age, gender, and personality.

• Support from friends
• Involvement with positive peer group activities
• Parental approval of peers
• Positive peer role models

School-related protective factors include attendance, performance, and environment. 

• Safe and caring environment
• High teacher morale and low turnover
• High expectations and achievement
• Anti-violence and guns policy

Community-level protective factors center around the physical environment of the neighborhood, the availability of employment and recreational opportunities, and structures that support community members. 

• Physical and psychological safety
• Opportunities to be involved with the community
• Positive norms
• Mentoring and support
• Engagement with healthy leisure activities such as clubs or sports

Different risk factors³ may have more or less influence based on the age of a child. For example, a four-year-old is likely to be more impacted by their family, while a 14-year-old may be more influenced by their peers. 

While protective factors can reduce the risk of problem outcomes, risk factors are associated with an increased likelihood of problem outcomes. Risk factors and protective factors often correlate; while high self-esteem is a protective factor, low self-esteem is a risk factor. Associating with healthy friends is a protective factor, but gang involvement is a risk factor. Protective factors may exert positive effects in direct opposition to the negative impact of risk factors or help create a buffer against risk factors. 

Below are risk factors that can negatively impact a child or adolescent.

These are often negative attitudes, values or beliefs such as:

• Low self-esteem
• Early substance use
• Insecure attachment
• Poor cognitive development
• Poor social skills

• Isolation from peers
• Peers with negative attitudes
• Peers involved in risky behavior or substance use

• Conflict within family or between parents
• Poor attachment with parents
• Abuse, neglect, or maltreatment
• Teenage parenthood
• Divorce
• Parental drug or alcohol use
• Poor supervision

• Poor academic performance
• School violence
• Low teacher morale and high turnover
• Limited clubs, sports & activities

• Violence within the community 
• Poverty
• Positive attitude toward alcohol and drug use within community
• High-crime neighborhood

Like protective factors, risk factors are cumulative; adolescents and young adults with multiple risk factors may have a greater chance of developing a mental health condition. In addition, delinquency is not caused by a single risk factor but by various factors. When a child is exposed to risk factors from more than one domain, the likelihood of delinquency is increased. The presence of risk factors may also increase the likelihood of a child having an adverse childhood experience (ACE). An ACE is a potentially traumatic experience such as abuse or witnessing an act of violence. 

A majority of the literature and research currently available about protective factors centers on children and adolescents. However, researchers in Australia recently explored the effects of protective factors on symptoms of depression in adults between 60-95 years old. They found that the factors of life satisfaction, self-esteem, and purpose in life were negatively associated with symptoms of depression; participants with these three factors were less likely to experience depressive symptoms. The authors of the study suggested that activities such as volunteering, participating in hobbies, and enjoying leisure activities may be beneficial in decreasing depression in older adults. 

Researchers are now proposing a specific additional domain of protective factors: societal. This includes social norms, policies, and state and federal regulations. Economic policies that may reduce household income or create financial uncertainty have been linked to increases in abuse and neglect. Even a widespread rise in gas prices is associated with an increase in rates of CPS investigations. Conversely, policies such as paid parental leave, increases in minimum wage, and increased welfare benefits may help prevent abuse and neglect of children.

Protective factors may be able to prevent or decrease the negative consequences associated with childhood maltreatment if they are provided in time, especially if they promote resilience. Factors including social support, family cohesion, coping skills, self-control, and attachment are associated with adaptive functioning and resilience. A meta-analysis of 85 articles regarding protective factors found that protective factors promote academic performance, stronger interpersonal relationships, and life satisfaction.