Risk Factors & Protective Factors & Health (HL IB Psychology)
Revision Note
Factors which may pose a health risk
Risk factors for health can be social or dispositional
Social factors:
behaviour of family and peers - e.g. if parents smoke, children are far more likely to start smoking in their teenage years
socio-economic status - poverty is associated with having to rely on cheap food full of carbohydrates, additives and sugar e.g. obesity and diabetes
housing - poor accommodation carries a health risk e.g. dampness and asthma
level of education - low levels of education may result in being less informed of health risks e.g. inactivity and heart disease
Individual factors:
external locus of control - possessing an external locus of control means viewing health as something that is not under one’s control e.g. ‘I live near so many fried chicken shops, I can’t help but eat what they sell’
age - although ageing itself is not in itself unhealthy, old age increases the risk of illnesses such as cardiovascular disease
genetics - some people may have a genetic vulnerability to some diseases e.g. a genetic mutation in DNA can cause mitochondrial disease
Factors which may protect health
Protective factors can also be divided into social factors and dispositional factors
Social factors:
healthy lifestyle of family and peers - if one’s family and friends engage in a healthy lifestyle of exercise, good nutrition and no smoking, one is likely to follow suit
socio-economic status - good housing, healthy eating and access to leisure activities all protect health
education - school health programmes and a generally good level of education have a positive effect on health
Individual factors:
internal locus of control - possessing an internal locus of control means viewing health as something that is under one’s control e.g. ‘I live near so many fried chicken shops but their food isn’t healthy so I’m going to avoid them’’ (linked to self-efficacy)
age - those aged 10-14 years old have the lowest rate of death worldwide from illness or accident (WHO, 2023)
genes - genes can also offer protection against some diseases e.g. the HLA gene has been found to boost the immune system
See the section on Dispositional Factors and Health for more examples of how individual factors affect health.
Young adolescents are at the age where their health is most protected
Exam Tip
When preparing to answer a question on risk factors and/or protective factors and health, make sure that you show awareness that social and dispositional factors are not entirely separate, instead there is an interaction between them. For example, a young child growing up in poverty in poor housing and with an inadequate diet may develop an external locus of control as they grow older as they feel powerless to exercise any autonomy over their own health.
Evaluation of risk factors and protective factors and health
Strengths
Identifying risk and protective factors can inform organisations’ policies and also family and individual behaviour change
The data identifying risk factors is partly taken from WHO surveys and those conducted by schools and health centres, giving it high construct validity and reliability
Limitations
There are difficulties in isolating variables and controlling for extraneous variables when trying to identify risk factors and protective factors for health
Much of the research into risk and protective factors has been conducted in the USA and therefore the results may lack cross-cultural validity
Which studies investigate risk factors and protective factors and health?
Haslam et al. (2018) found a tendency to underestimate the importance of social factors for health
Turbin et al. (2006) found protective factors were more influential than risk factors in middle school participants from China and the USA
Haslam et al. (2018) and Turbin et al. (2006) are available as ‘Two Key Studies of Risk Factors and Protective Factors’ – just navigate to the Risk Factors and Protective Factors and Health section of this topic to find them.
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