ABSTRACT
With a good understanding of risk factors and protective factors, school psychologists are ready to move to the next step in the process, which is applying that knowledge in a step-by-step process that will assist them in decision-making and program development. Descriptive epidemiology helps school psychologists clarify their identified problem, but analytic epidemiology allows them to make decisions about how they will address the issue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also developed a youth risk survey that is used to monitor the degree to which youth are engaging in the specific behaviors that are associated with the health risks. Family risk factors include permissive parenting, inadequate supervision, parent–child conflict, parents holding a favorable attitude toward substance use, and modeling from older siblings. School risk factors include school failure, low engagement with school, peer attitudes that support use, a deviant peer group, and alienation from peers.
