An Examination of the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk – Youth Version (SAPROF-YV) in Canadian Adolescents

The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk – Youth Version (SAPROF-YV; de Vries Robbé et al., 2015) is a new measure of protective factors that is used with a risk-focused tool, such as the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY; Borum et al., 2006), to provide a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of violence risk in adolescents. Currently, there are no published studies on the SAPROF-YV's predictive validity. The present study investigated the relationship between the SAPROF-YV and aggression in a sample of 69 adolescents. Using a retrospective follow-up study design, files were reviewed at an inpatient treatment center and a probation office. Results indicated that the SAPROF-YV demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity with the SAVRY. The SAPROF-YV was predictive of the absence of minor verbal aggression. While the SAPROF-YV added incremental predictive validity to SAVRY Protective factors for minor verbal aggression, it did not add incrementally to SAVRY Risk factors in the prediction of any type of aggression. Implications for future research and clinical applications are discussed.