Preventive efforts aimed at delinquency and drug abuse that are based on models of adolescent problem behaviors that are inconsistent with empirical evidence often fail. Recent research has identified some of the potential causes of adolescent problem behaviors, including drug abuse, delinquency, violence, dropping out of school, and teenage pregnancy (Brewer et al., 1995; Hawkins, Arthur, and Catalano, 1995; Resnick et al., 1997). These studies have helped to usher in a new era of prevention focused on risk factors and protective factors. Interventions at any level, from the individual to the community, can now be designed to address known predictors of adolescent problem behaviors that have been identified in the empirical literature.

A critically important feature of PDFY is the research base on which it was developed. Drs. David Hawkins and Richard Catalano, researchers in the field of prevention of risk behavior at the University of Washington, conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on risk and protective factors and used their research as the empirical cornerstone of the PDFY curriculum (Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller, 1992). Important risk factors include:

• Little parental supervision and monitoring.

• Low degree of communication and interaction between parents and children.

• Poorly defined and poorly communicated rules and expectations for children's behavior.

• Inconsistent and excessively severe discipline.

Other family risk factors for substance abuse include:

• Family conflict.

• Favorable parental attitudes toward teen alcohol and drug use.

• Favorable sibling attitudes toward alcohol and drug use.

• Parental alcoholism or drug use.

Parents' expectations regarding their children's drug use or friendship choices may be particularly important because parents often influence their children's early first use of drugs and their choice of friends who use alcohol or other drugs.

Conversely, families can provide the following protective factors against the development of health and behavior problems in children:

• Parental support for child competencies.

• Parental warmth and affection.

• Parental presentation of healthy beliefs and clear standards for behavior.

Enhancing protective factors in the family environment is particularly important as children enter the middle school years and move into early adolescence. During this period, the growing influence of peers and the transition from elementary to middle school environments increase children's exposure to a variety of risks.