Social Indicators and Risk and Protective Factors

At the State of Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Website, they provide their Drug and Alcohol Prevention Risk and Protective Factor Report System. This is perhaps the best and most easily accessed and organized database of social indicators designed for substance abuse prevention, and it provides a wonderful way to understand the link between social indicators and risk and protective factors.

The Website provides a wealth of social indicators and has organized them in relation to regions and risk factors. Organized by risk factors, the Website provides risk factor data on Statewide, county, judicial, and other regions, and describes which State Government agency or department from which the information was obtained.

As can be seen at their Website and on Exhibit 2.1: Risk Factors and Social Indicators, social indicators can be organized by risk factors. For example, the availability of drugs can be measured in part by examining the rates of alcohol sales outlets and alcohol beverage tax, since it is known that greater density (or number) of retail alcohol outlets is associated with a variety of alcohol-related problems, such as increases in alcohol abuse, alcohol-related violence, alcohol-related crime, alcohol-related arrests, and alcohol-related traffic fatalities.

Likewise, community transition and mobility can be measured in part by examining the rates of new home construction, households in rental properties, and net migration. Similarly, economic and social deprivation can be measured in part by examining unemployment rates, the percent participating in the free and reduced lunch program, the percent receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the percentage of people receiving food stamps, and the percent of households with single parent families.