Risk and protective factors for positive upbringing conditions and the prevention of crime among children and adolescents: A brief report
Note
|Published
The purpose of this synthesis is to identify promoting and in-hibiting factors for children and young people’s upbringing (formative) conditions, as well as protective and risk factors for juvenile delinquency.
Key message
Children's upbringing conditions refer to the conditions under which children grow up and include both immediate and structural conditions that affect their development, health and learning. The purpose of this synthesis is to identify promoting and inhibiting factors for children and young people’s upbringing (formative) conditions, as well as protective and risk factors for juvenile delinquency.
We searched the databases Epistemonikos and Web of Science, as well as Google and OpenAlex, for systematic reviews and professional guidelines. One researcher conducted the study selection and data extraction. We used artificial intelligence as a support tool in reference assessment and data extraction, with manual quality control. We structured the identified factors related to children and young people's upbringing conditions and juvenile delinquency according to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model.
We included and extracted data from 17 evidence syntheses: five overviews of reviews (published 2021-2025) and 12 systematic reviews (published 2024-2025). They covered a wide range of topics. We found that frequently occurring promoters of good upbringing conditions included, among others, school belonging and close relationships with parents. Frequently occurring inhibitors of good upbringing conditions included, among others, low socioeconomic status, bullying, school absenteeism, poor family relationships, and mental health problems. Frequently occurring protective factors for juvenile delinquency included, among others, safe and supportive school and neighbourhood environments, parental attachment, while frequently occurring risk factors for juvenile delinquency included, among others, poor school environment, school absenteeism, neighbourhood crime, poverty, and neglect.
The results should be interpreted with caution, given that time and resource constraints did not allow for in-depth analyses and assessments of the evidence.
