Exploring the Gender Differences in Protective Factors

Abstract

Understanding the causes of why individuals desist from or are resilient to delinquency and drug use has become a salient social concern. Much research has centered on the effects that protective factors possess in fostering resiliency but that research has not fully explored how the effects of protective factors might vary across gender. Using a sample of 711 individuals from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, Child-Mother data set, the authors investigate how individual protective factors vary across gender on two measures of resiliency that document the lack of involvement in serious delinquency and drug use. They also examine whether the accumulation of protective factors varies across gender in fostering resiliency. The findings suggest that although males and females rely on different individual protective factors to foster resiliency, the accumulation of protective factors appears to be equally important for males and females in promoting resiliency. The authors discuss theoretical and policy implications.

Resiliency against victimization: Results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

“…Much like the logic with multiple risk factors, an isolated protective factor might only have increased the odds of resiliency by a small proportion; however, as additional protective factors are experienced, the odds of being resilient to the stressors associated with high-risk environments substantially increased. In support of this assertion, the cumulative effects of protective factors predicted being resilient from both delinquency and drug use among a sample of high-risk individuals (Hartman, Turner, Daigle, Exum, & Cullen, 2009;Turner et al, 2007). In sum, the resiliency research had shown that there are indeed factors that help insulate high-risk individuals from crime, delinquency, and other deleterious outcomes and that the most significant protection emerged as the number of protective factors increases.…”

Examining Risks and Protective Factors of On-Line Identity Theft

“…To be sure, past research has documented that whites differ from non-whites and males differ from females in terms of the type of protective factors individuals use to remain resilient (Hartman et al 2009). The present effort could not explore such differences across subgroups defined by race or sex due to limited sample sizes in these groups.…”

Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors for Recidivism in Spanish Youth Offenders

“…Some authors (Haines & Case, 2008) point out that risk factors can vary greatly. The same diversity applies to protective factors, which can be considered variables that predict a low probability of offending among persons exposed to risk factors (Farrington et al, 2012;Hartman, Turner, Daigle, Exum & Cullen, 2009 role. This study therefore includes both types of factors, while at the same time recognizing their independent nature (Haines & Case, 2008;Hoge, Andrews & Leschied, 1996).…”