When is it appropriate to focus on protection in interventions for adolescents?

Assertions about the appropriateness of targeting risk or protective factors in interventions for adolescents must be qualified in terms of the outcomes and populations examined in studies and in terms of how risk and protection are measured. The cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between protection and aggressive behavior found for 388 high-risk adolescents (81.7% male; 50.8% African American/other; average age, 14.5) with serious emotional disturbances in this study validated an intervention focus on protective factors.