Measuring risk and protection in communities using the Communities That Care Youth Survey

The Communities That Care Youth Survey measures risk and protective factors shown in prior studies to predict adolescent problem behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, and violence. This paper describes the development and validation of cut points for the risk and protective factor scales in the Communities That Care Youth Survey that distinguish youths at higher risk for involvement in problem behaviors from those at lower risk. Using these cut points, populations surveyed with this instrument can be described in terms of the proportions of youths experiencing risk and the proportions experiencing protection on each predictor. This facilitates communities’ prioritization of specific factors for attention. This paper compares different cut points, and evaluates the discriminant validity of selected cut points. Results indicate that cut points with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity can be established for each of the scales, and that risk and protective factors can be profiled as prevalence rates. Implications of these findings for prevention planning are discussed.