An Awareness Assessment of High-Risk Behaviors and Protective Factors among Parents and Students of Public Middle Schools of Alborz in 2012

Introduction and Parents and students’ awareness of high-risk behaviors and protective factors was assessed in the public middle schools of Alborz in 2012. The major question addressed by this study was whether students and their parents were aware of risk behaviors. The primary objective was to identify the level of awareness of risk behaviors, contributing factors, symptoms, protective factors, and sources of information among respondents. A combination of document review and surveys were used in this study by drawing on data collected through questionnaires and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. As far as awareness among students and their parents about different types of high-risk behaviors is concerned, each student, in average, noted 12.2% of risk behaviors; i.e. students were properly aware of one out of 8 risk behaviors (correct answer) while school managers and parents, in average, pointed out 14.2% and 13.5% of risk behaviors, respectively, meaning that they were aware of one out of every eight risk behaviors. Discussion and The findings indicate that in responding to questions about risk behaviors (the first question of the study), over 85% of students and parents reported that they were aware of such behaviors and believed that risk behaviors are prevalent among all individuals of society (not only youths and adolescents). However, results in terms of level of awareness about risk behaviors (answers to the second question) demonstrated that awareness existed only in relation to one out of every eight common risk behaviors.