Great Britain

This chapter reports the results of administering the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC-YS) to a very large school-based British national representative sample of 14,445 students aged 11–16. This survey is unique not only in being based on a large national sample of schools but also in its extensive measurement of risk and protective factors as well as problem behavior outcomes. Overall, 32% of boys and 21% of girls were classified as delinquents, while 16% of boys and 16% of girls were drug users. Delinquency and drug use increased with age. The most important explanatory risk factors for delinquency and drug use were the availability of drugs, parental attitudes condoning problem behavior, low commitment to school, a family history of problem behavior, and poor parental supervision. The most important protective factors were family opportunities for prosocial involvement, family rewards for prosocial involvement, and family attachment. These results indicate important targets for interventions that are designed to reduce delinquency and drug use.