Protective factors are characteristics or conditions that promote the health and well-being of children and adolescents. 1 They buffer against the effects of adverse experiences, reduce the likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors, and help maintain emotional and behavioral stability. Examples of protective factors include strong family bonds, positive relationship with adults in school and community, and supportive peer connection. By fostering these protective elements, communities and caregivers can help young adolescents build resilience. Having a strong resilience is having the ability to bounce back or recover from stress. 2 Resiliency factors are internal strengths or external resources that can aid adolescents promote recovery and positive growth after setbacks.
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The following bar graphs show how many New Mexico high school students engaged in certain behaviors. The numbers are shown as percentages for different groups of students.
The first bar graph shows the overall rate (prevalence) for all New Mexico high school students combined.
On the other graphs, you’ll see a black dotted line that shows the prevalence for the whole state, and a grey shaded area around the dotted line that shows the 95% confidence interval.
Because of the high cost and logistical complications involved in conducting a statewide survey, the NM-YRRS was administered to a sample of students, rather than to every single student in each school district. Because NM-YRRS data are from a sample of students, and not the entire student body, the results in this report are estimates. As with all estimates, there is some uncertainty associated with each of these results. On the charts in this report, this degree of uncertainty is represented by an error bar (confidence interval). The error bar is the thin black line that extends left and right of the end of each bar in a chart. One of the major influences on the size of the confidence interval or error bar is the number of participants in the survey. In general, this means that with more students participating in the survey, there will be a higher degree of confidence in the results (i.e., error bars will be smaller).