Development of a Scale to Measure Psychosocial Risks and Protective Factors in Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Resilience among adolescents can best be understood by examining the risk and protective factors in the lives of at-risk adolescents. A standardized tool to identify adolescent psychosocial risk and protective factors may help better understand the strengths, vulnerabilities, and the potential for resilience among adolescents. Hence, the present study aims to identify and measure the risk and protective factors in the lives of adolescents. Methods: A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was used to develop a tool that measures risk and protective factors among adolescents. The qualitative study explored psychosocial risk and protective factors among high-risk adolescents using 4 major domains: individual, family, school, and community. To develop the tool, prisoners (N = 12), caregivers of the prisoners’ children (N = 12), teachers of the prisoners’ children (N = 12), and prison authorities (N = 12) were interviewed about their experiences with prisoners’ children. The interview data were analyzed, and items reflecting the risk and protective factors in the lives of the adolescent children of incarcerated parents were generated. The item pool consisting of 239 items was administered to a sample of 312 rural adolescent students. To validate the risk factors scale and protective factors scale, self-report scales measuring behavior problems, adjustment, well-being, and positivity were used. Results: The new tool developed to measure the risk and protective factors for adolescent psychosocial development was found to have adequate test-retest reliability, content validity, convergent validity, and divergent validity. Conclusion: In this study, a scale to identify psychosocial risk and protective factors was developed and standardized. The tool will be helpful to psychologists and counselors working with adolescents to understand the risks and protective factors present in their lives and design interventions to nurture resilience in them.