| Victimization is a pervasive problem among adolescents in the United States, with nearly half of adolescents experiencing some form of victimization every year. The purpose of the present study was to examine how risk and protective factors are associated with adolescent victimization by testing four models from resiliency research---the compensatory, risk-protective, protective-protective, and challenge models. The models were tested separately by gender to determine which is most useful for explaining resiliency to adolescent victimization for males and females. The data for this study were taken from a multi-state project, which surveyed eighth grade students in at-risk urban and rural schools. Cumulative risk and protective indices were created from five risk variables (family conflict, anger expression, external locus of control, witnessing violence, and involvement in risky behaviors) and four protective variables (social connectedness, parental monitoring, influence of religion, and neighborhood cohesion). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the four resiliency models. Results indicated support for the challenge model for both males and females. The challenge model describes a curvilinear relationship between risk and victimization, such that a small amount of risk exposure is actually more beneficial than no exposure to risk in reducing victimization. However, once risk exposure increases past that initial beneficial level, the likelihood of victimization increases exponentially. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed. |
