The purpose of the research described in this article was to identify factors which protect young people against risk behavior such as alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking, and drug abuse.
Methods: The research group covered 1,041 students of right secondary schools from central and north Poland aged 14 and 15 years with the number of girls slightly higher 560 (53.8%) than the number of boys 481 (46.2%). Students had to complete a Pro-zint survey developed for the purposes of the research project.
Results: Parental control and parental standards for risk behaviors are two factors offering strongest protection against risk behavior connected with alcohol drinking (respectively Wald = 46.11; p < .001 and Wald = 10.26; p < .01). Factors connected with family environment such as parental control (Wald = 15.12, p < .001) and relationship with father (Wald = 12.11 p < .01) were statistically significant in protecting young people against smoking. Parental control is a factor that has a significant statistical influence on the protection of young people against drug abuse (Wald = 10.14, p < .01).
Conclusions: This research made it possible to develop models of factors that protect Polish youth against risk behavior connected with the use of psychoactive substances. The results show that in most cases, the factors coincide with those determined in other research. The leading role of the parental control factor was confirmed not only as the most universal factor offering protection against various types of problem behavior but also a factor offering the strongest protection.