Preventing Drug Abuse among Children and Adolescents: Where Does the Salutogenic Approach Direct Us?

Abstract

The “science of prevention” approach has advanced research in the realm of drug abuse. Emphasis, however, was clearly accorded to risk factors rather than to uncovering protective factors. In the 1980s, Antonovsky proposed a new paradigm—salutogenesis—which provided a different theoretical and practical basis for constructing and evaluating prevention programs. According to the salutogenic model, prevention programs should relate to the extent that these protective factors advance youths—as well as the systems in which they live—towards promoting comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. The paper describes salutogenic directed programs and research, and discusses the contribution of the theory to advancement of both practice and research in the area of drug abuse.