This study aimed to investigate social and personal factors that can serve as protection to adolescents and youths in situation of social and personal risk. The participants were 852 adolescents and youths of public schools of the Federal District, aged 13 to 27 years, who answered a questionnaire with 109 items about risk and protection in their development. The results focused on the protection networks (family, school, friends) and the personal factors (self-esteem, religiosity-spirituality). The adolescents and youths presented processes of global resilience (social, emotional and academic), evidencing the trust in themselves and in the composed network by school, family and friends. The data analyses show the importance of understanding adolescence and youth as a contextual process in Brazil and the necessity of youth's public polices to exercise and to internalize positive and protective experiences.
adolescence; protection; social network
