This research has important implications for risk and injury prevention research and practice. As well as targeting adolescents'
own attitudes and behavior, this research has indicated that interventions aiming to reduce adolescent risk taking
and associated injury may focus on increasing adolescents' willingness to protect their friends in risky situations. Gaining an
insight into the factors that influence adolescents' willingness to protect their friends enables the targeted development of
intervention programs. Specifically, this research has shown that programs may focus on increasing students' sense of
connectedness to their school. Previous research has shown the benefits of increased school connectedness in regards to
academic achievement, emotional health, and adolescents' own involvement in risk taking behavior. This study complements
and builds upon this literature by indicating additional benefits of increasing school connectedness, in that it may impact on
students' willingness to prevent friends' potential injury. While future research may potentially also incorporate more
objective measures of adolescent protective behavior than this study has allowed, this research offers an important insight
into the significance of school connectedness in adolescents' prosocial and protective behavior within their friendship groups.