ORIGINAL PAPER Protective Factors Based Model for Screening for Posttraumatic Distress in Adolescents Ruth Pat-Horenczyk • Avraham Max Kenan • Michal Achituv • Eytan Bachar Published online: 4 December 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Background There is growing application of school-based screening to identify post- traumatic distress in students following exposure to trauma. The consensus method is based on self-report questionnaires that assess posttraumatic symptoms, functional impairment, depression or anxiety. Objective The current research explored the possibility of using a model, based on the assessment of protective factors, as a screening method for identifying youth who may suffer from posttraumatic distress and need professional help in the aftermath of war. Method Participants were 482 Israeli high-school students who were exposed to ongoing missile attacks during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008. The data collected included symptom scales and three protective factor scales assessing perceived self-efficacy, cog- nitive-emotion regulation and flexibility in the use of various coping strategies. Results The results showed that all three protective factors were significant predictors of symptom severity. The protective-factor-based model utilized logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics analysis. The model correctly classified 84 % of ado- lescents presenting with probable post traumatic stress disorder, identifying them as dis- tressed. Cross-validation was conducted to assess the stability and reliability of the model, which were found to be acceptable. Conclusion The protective factors based model could be important as a part of pre- liminary triage before referral for intervention and for identification of distressed R. Pat-Horenczyk (&) Á M. Achituv Herzog-Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, P.O. Box, 3900, 91035 Jerusalem, Israel e-mail: mshoren@gmail.com; rpat@herzoghospital.org R. Pat-Horenczyk Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel A. M. Kenan Á E. Bachar Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel 123 Child Youth Care Forum (2014) 43:339–351 DOI 10.1007/s10566-013-9241-y