Risk Factors
Within the contributory approach followed by a preponderance of researchers, the factors leading to an outcome can be grouped into two sets: risk factors and protective factors. The first of these is addressed in this section.
A risk factor is an input that influences the group of inputs it combines with toward an unwanted result. Sometimes a risk factor is prominent, in others instances it has little to do with the ensuing outcome.
As the Youth Violence: What We Need to Know [1] study highlights: “the interplay, or additive nature, of these risk factors is important to consider because no single risk factor provides us with a comprehensive understanding.”
Beneath the umbrella of this report are these general types of risk factor.
Risk Factors for Aggressive and Violent Behaviors
Poor parenting practices (e.g. child neglect, abuse)
Households under economic stress (poverty level, dysfunctionality, self-regulation issues)
Rejection from adolescent peer groups
Genetic, endocrine and environmental factors
Deteriorating mental health (not necessarily diagnosed mental illness)
Intensive exposure to the fantasy world of online games that glorify violence and desensitize the viewer to its consequences
Access to firearms and other weapons
The Subcommittee on Youth Violence - which produced the recommendations contained in the Youth Violence report—deliberated on three broad categories of risk factor in evaluating youth violence: access to guns, mental health and exposure to media violence.
The potential effects of the third category cited in the above report-- exposure to media violence—are the focus of the Tame the Gamer website.
[1] Youth Violence: What We Need to Know Report of the Subcommittee on Youth Violence of the Advisory Committee to the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation (February 1 and 2, 2013)