Compare methods

	Risk and Resilience Assessment	Social Support Assessment
Field	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1999	1988
Originator	Mark W. Fraser & colleagues (ecological risk-and-resilience framework)	Multiple traditions; perceived-support scale by Zimet et al., buffering theory by Cohen & Wills
Type	Ecological assessment of risk and protective factors across multiple system levels	Assessment of the structure, function, and perceived adequacy of a client's social support
Seminal source	Fraser, M. W., Richman, J. M., & Galinsky, M. J. (1999). Risk, protection, and resilience: Toward a conceptual framework for social work practice. Social Work Research, 23(3), 131–143.	Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30–41.
Aliases	Risk and Protective Factors Assessment, Resilience-Based Assessment, Ecological Risk-Resilience Framework, Risk and Resilience Framework	Social Support Measurement, Perceived Social Support Assessment, Social Support Network Assessment, Social Support Inventory
Related	4	4
Summary	Risk and resilience assessment is an ecological approach to understanding why some people exposed to adversity fare poorly while others do well, by identifying the risk factors that increase the likelihood of negative outcomes and the protective factors that buffer against them, across individual, family, and environmental levels. Articulated for social work by Mark Fraser and colleagues, it shifts assessment from cataloguing deficits to weighing the dynamic balance of vulnerabilities and strengths, and uses that balance to target interventions that reduce risk and bolster protection.	Social support assessment is the systematic appraisal of the people and resources a client can draw on, the kinds of support they provide, and how adequate that support feels relative to the client's needs. Drawing on the structural-functional theory of support and on validated instruments such as the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, it gives social workers a structured way to map who is in a client's network, what emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support those ties offer, and where gaps leave the client vulnerable — information that is central to strengths-based intervention and care planning.