Protective factor

Protective factors are conditions or attributes (skills, strengths, resources, supports or coping strategies) in individuals, families, communities or the larger society that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities.

In the field of Preventative Medicine and Health Psychology, Protective Factors refer to any factor that decreases the chances of a negative health outcome occurring. Conversely, a Risk Factor will increase the chances of a negative health outcome occurring. Just as statistical correlations and regressions can examine how a range of independent variables impact a dependent variable, we can examine how many Protective factors and Risk factor contribute to the likelihood of an illness occurring.