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 Plenty of previous research has linked gun use among young people to
the availability and visibility of weapons in their homes and
communities. The current study focused on teen boys found guilty of
serious crimes and found every exposure to violence was associated
with 43 to 87 percent higher odds that these young men would carry
guns.
"Experiencing trauma, whether by witnessing drive-by shootings in
the neighborhood or a school classmate being shot, impacts every
sphere of an adolescent’s life - invalidating expectations of
finding safety in the world and shattering optimistic beliefs about
the future," said lead study author Joan Reid, a criminology
researcher at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.
"Repeated exposure to violence gradually desensitizes adolescents to
the risks and they become numb to the dangerous reality," Reid added
by email. "Paradoxically, gun carrying makes them feel safer while
actually increasing their likelihood of an early death."
For the current study, researchers surveyed 1,170 young men ages 14
to 19 who had been found guilty of a serious criminal offense in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Phoenix, Arizona.
After the initial survey, researchers assessed participants at four
and six month intervals between 2000 and 2003 to see how often they
carried guns, experienced psychological distress or were exposed to
violence.
Most of the teens were around 14 years old at the time of their
first arrest, and roughly half of them had carried guns at least
once.
Witnessing violence was associated with 43 to 59 percent higher odds
of gun carrying, researchers report in the Annals of Internal
Medicine. Experiencing violence was tied to 63 to 87 percent higher
odds of gun carrying.
The findings in teen boys may not apply to teen girls, the authors
note. It's also possible that other factors may have influenced gun
carrying, particularly because so many of the boys in the study had
handled weapons prior to joining the trial.
For parents trying to prevent violence exposure and gun use, there
aren't a lot of easy answers, said Deanna Wilkinson, a researcher at
Ohio State University in Columbus who wasn't involved in the study.
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Surrounding children with positive adult role models, and getting to
know their friends and the families of their friends can help,
Wilkinson said. So can reading to kids from birth and trying to keep
teens focused on education.
But these efforts may still not be enough to overcome the stress and
exposure to trauma that happens when children grow up in a violent
community.
"Move out of the most dangerous neighborhoods or schools if at all
possible" Wilkinson said. "Do not enable your child to slide into
gray or black market hustles even if poverty is a problem."
In reality, this often isn't possible.
"Because serious crime and economic distress are so tightly linked,
it is very difficult for parents to entirely eliminate the risk that
their children will be exposed to violence, experience psychological
distress, or even carry guns," said Alex Piquero, a researcher at
the University of Texas in Dallas who wasn't involved in the study.
"Parents need to do the best job they can at raising their kids to
be good students, respect the law, and stay away from the fray, so
to speak," Piquero added by email. "At the same time, local
officials and city leaders must continue to do all they can to help
bolster distressed communities by developing meaningful employment
opportunities and establishing top-performing educational
institutions."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2knKDnf Annals of Internal Medicine, online
January 30, 2017.
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